


Blighted by Sin

by Lullabymoon



Category: Inspector Lynley Mysteries (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, F/M, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-30
Updated: 2011-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:07:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 30,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lullabymoon/pseuds/Lullabymoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a young woman is found brutally beaten in a London park, Lynley and Havers must find the person responsible, as well as deal with the emotional fall out and navigate their own changing relationship.</p><p>Contains violence, specifically against pregnant women, and foetal death (both offscreen).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blighted by Sin

**Author's Note:**

> This is set a year or two after the final episode, 'Know Thine Enemy'. A huge thanks to fringedweller for the awesome beta (any remaining mistakes are my own), and to my flist for all their cheerleading.
> 
> You can see the beautiful artwork aj made to go along side this [here](http://hetbigbang.weebly.com/aj---blighted-by-sin-artwork.html).

_Present day - Paris_

Barbara woke in the night. Sleep didn't immediately reclaim her and she shifted, the ring on her finger catching in the bed sheets. She stilled and looked at it, the newness of it feeling strange but a thrill still ran through her. Wide awake now, she stood, careful not to disturb the sheets too much and stood in front of the window. Leaning against the wall, she looked out at the view.

The Eiffel Tower peeked out over the tops of the buildings opposite and the sky was bright with reflected light. In that dim light she studied her ring again. She still felt at sense of disbelief that she, they, were here, that the ring was real and the proposal in front of the tower wasn't a dream. She twisted the ring, the small diamond catching in the light and she felt giddy.

She turned her head to see Tommy still asleep in bed and she couldn’t help the small affectionate smile that crossed her face. Still giddy, still more than unlikely to fall back asleep any time soon, she turned back to the unfamiliar skyline and let her thoughts wander.

It was perhaps inevitable that they turned to the beginning of their new relationship.

~~

 _Monday 12th August - London_

The day was already proving to be like the day before: hot and sticky, and it was only ten past eight. Barbara grumbled at the weather as her car ground to a halt in the traffic and she tried to coax more cold air out of the air conditioning. She would have taken the tube this morning if the heat wouldn’t have been worse underground. At least her air conditioning was working a little and she didn't have to put up with the morning crush.

All of this predictably led to her walking in to the office in a grumpy mood. It was too hot for tea really but she made a cup and set it down on her desk anyway. She settled down to the remains of the paperwork from the day before, ignoring the buzz of the office around her until she was distracted by a shout.

"Havers!" She looked up and Anderson tossed a file on her desk. He looked mildly apologetic, a first that she had ever seen from him. "No one else has a light enough caseload." She nodded and Anderson wandered off through the office.

She opened the file and her heart sank as she read through the initial incident report. She could see why Anderson had looked apologetic.

She glanced around the office and felt relieved when she saw Lynley wasn’t in yet then closed the file and sat back in her chair. She seriously considered swapping the case with someone but she knew Anderson wasn’t enough of a bastard to give them the case if anyone else could take it.

It was moments like this she wished she hadn’t given up smoking. It would have given her an excuse to pop outside while she thought her next move through. In the end, she settled for the ladies, passing Lynley as he came in. If he thought anything odd about her popping into the ladies with a folder, he said nothing about it as he greeted her.

She felt faintly guilty when she didn’t mention the new case but simply answered paperwork to his enquiry of what he had missed.

She locked herself in a cubicle and opened the case again, hoping somewhat impossibly that the details had changed since the last time.

No such luck.

Young, unidentified woman found beaten in a park this morning. Currently in surgery to try and save her unborn baby.

Barbara felt bile start to rise, not just for Lynley but because she wanted to beat the bastard who did this. She closed her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths to try and calm herself.

Her stomach started to twist in guilt because as much as she felt the need to close this case creep up on her, the first and foremost thought in her mind wasn’t about the baby, or the mother, or the family, but in passing the case over to protect Lynley. It would bring all sorts of memories back and there was a growing terror in her that he wouldn’t come back from them this time, not when he had only really recently stopped twitching when someone asked if he was married or had children.

On the other hand, she knew what his reaction would be if she tried to fob the case off on someone else, knew herself well enough to know that the thoughts of the case would run around her head regardless.

With a sigh, she opened her eyes and forced herself to read through the rest of the details.

A small kid found the victim at about quarter past seven this morning, handbag strewn across the path from her, no purse or phone.

Her mind automatically started creating a list of things to do, just like in every other case and at that point she knew it was time to head back to her desk and fill Lynley in on the details. Despite this acceptance, she still paused at the door to his office, taking a deep breath to steel herself before she went ahead.

Lynley looked up at her when she knocked on his open door and waved her into the seat opposite him. She tossed the file down in front of him before she sat down, trying to act casual as she did so. She waited for what seemed like an eternity as he finished with the computer and then started reading the file.

Barbara could tell the instant he read the description of the crime for he tensed, fingers gripping the file tighter. His eyes flicked up to look at her and she cursed their ability to know each other so well because surely he could see how the casual attitude was all an act. He stared at her for a moment, his face blank but then he softened, flashed a somewhat wavering smile at her then put his eyes back down to the file.

She relaxed slightly, one reaction overcome but she would wait and see how he coped with the case before she would stop worrying altogether. She could tell when he stopped reading and she spoke before he could. "I’ll phone the hospital, see how they’re getting on, and you can get the warrant for her phone records started."

He looked faintly relived not to have to think just yet.

"Has the phone been found yet?"

"No but uniform are still searching the park and once she’s identified we’ll need the warrant."

Lynley nodded and she stood, gently pulled the file away from him and headed back out to her desk.

The call to the hospital yielded no results as they were still in surgery and although the nurse didn’t say it, things didn’t sound good. She blew out a breath in frustration and looked towards Lynley. He was off the phone now and heading towards her.

"Everything’s in place for when we identify her." He perched on the corner of her desk. "Come on, I’ll drive."

She nodded and grabbed her bag.

~~

The drive to the scene was quiet, the traffic slightly less congested than earlier but the heat was just as stifling, even with the fans running full blast, which, in his so called classic car wasn't that brilliant. He gave her the usual 'but it's a classic' look when she mentioned that though and the brief return to normality cheered her somewhat.

They managed to get parked relatively close to the scene and she groaned when she stepped out of the car and it was even hotter. He flashed a quick smile at her and she grumbled under her breath at how comfortable he managed to look in the heat.

They ducked under the tape barrier, walking over to the nearest uniform, who promptly directed them to the women standing with their prams, trying to comfort the crying children. A grimace crossed her face and Lynley looked faintly amused. "It could be worse you know." She looked askance at him and he smiled, which part of her rejoiced to see. "It could be raining."

She rolled her eyes.

"I wish. Wouldn't be on the verge of melting then."

Back to business, they interviewed the mums, a quick process given that they had already talked to uniform and the kids kept screaming. The area of park where the victim had been found was a little secluded from the bustle of the rest of the park, hidden from main view by a couple of large bushes and out of sight of the road by trees forming a hedge in front of the fence. A couple of branches were bent out of shape, a few crisp packets and a juice bottle littering the ground but other than that it was just a secluded patch of grass. She looked around aimlessly for a moment.

"Even if she was mugged, she must have been dragged back here so she wouldn't be found as quickly."

She saw Lynley's face tighten at this but carried on.

"If it was a mugging, whoever it was could have thought they killed her so they hid her."

He still didn’t say anything.

"Although uniform found her handbag and some of the stuff across the park so mugging looks less likely."

"It does seem a bit off for a mugging." Lynley finally responded.

One of the uniforms who had been searching the area around the park came jogging across.

"Found her purse, Sir."

"How do you know it's hers?" Lynley asked before Barbara could.

"I was one of the first ones on the scene, I recognised her face in the picture."

Lynley nodded and started walking across the park.

"Thanks, Jones," Barbara added before she started taking after Lynley.

"Not a very good mugger," she remarked as she looked at the spot where the purse was, credit card sitting snugly in it's pocket. "Could be a scared kid,"

"Or fairly desperate, whoever they were if they hurt her badly enough to put her in the hospital, then left a credit card behind."

She nodded her agreement of his words. "Should be enough to get a name though. I'll phone it in to the station, see if they can get a start on her personal details."

Lynley nodded at her and looked lost in thought.

When she got off the phone, he had clearly thought things through and he started speaking.

"We need to know the full extent of her injuries before we go any further. What was in the report seemed far too violent for a mugging."

"We'll stop by the hospital on the way back to the office."

Lynley bobbed his head in acknowledgement of her suggestion and they started off towards his car. She groaned at the heat that had built up in the car and switched the fans back on as soon as he started the engine. He smiled slightly. "At least the hospital's air conditioning will be on."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

~~

The air conditioning was indeed working in the hospital and she basked for a minute in the doorway, him rolling his eyes this time and uttering a put upon "Come on," before he started towards the bank of lifts.

The light-heartedness disappeared and she could feel a sense of dread begin in her stomach as the lift rose to the floor they wanted and they found their way to the maternity ward.

Mother and baby were still in surgery when they arrived and Barbara's heart sank when she saw the look on the nurses faces. They showed their badges at the nearest nurse and Barbara braced herself for the worst.

"Unfortunately, they couldn't save the baby, too much trauma, but the mother has made it so far. She should be out of surgery shortly. If you want to wait around, talk to the doctor, it shouldn't be long."

Barbara glanced quickly at Lynley and seeing he didn't look too bad, nodded and the nurse, Emma her name tag said, carried on. "Any luck identifying her yet?"

"No yet. We'll let you know when we do."

On second thoughts, Lynley's tone was rather sharp. "We'll just nip down to the cafeteria, get out of your hair while we wait." Barbara smiled at Emma, and walked back the way they had came, Lynley having no choice but to follow.

He pressed the lift button rather aggressively.

"I don't need to be mothered, Barbara, I'm perfectly fine."

"Yeah, well that nurse didn't need to get her head bitten off but it didn't stop you." The lift arrived and Lynley sighed as they entered. "'sides, thought biting people's heads off was my job. Not stealing it are you?" She softened it with a smirk which widened into a grin when he harrumphed and let loose a tiny smile.

The tea was typical hospital cafeteria fare and the only thing it had going for it was that it was wet but it passed the time and the doctor was ready to talk to them when they got back to the ward.

"She's got massive internal bleeding, as well as a nasty head wound that knocked her out pretty decently. We've managed to stop the bleeding for now but her blood pressure is still pretty low and she is badly bruised over most of her body."

"Is she likely to wake up soon?" Barbara started the questions.

"Given the head wound, and the blood loss, I don't think so," the doctor replied. "The head wound alone would be enough to keep her out for a while."

"How badly bruised?" Lynley asked next.

"Well, her arms and legs are covered in bruises, her abdomen as well, and there is some bruising around her head wound but she'll need to be examined thoroughly to get a more accurate picture. From experience though, they were just starting to appear so I wouldn’t say the attack was too long ago."

Barbara nodded. "Well, someone from SOCO is on their way," she said and the doctor nodded.

"Anything else you can tell us?"

The doctor shook his head. "No, but if you leave your details we'll contact you if anything changes."

Barbara handed over a card and smiled briefly. They both thanked him before heading out again and it was Lynley who winced at the heat this time. Barbara couldn't help but snigger, even more so at the expression he gave her.

She dialled the station again, getting Jones who had managed to get the victim's details from the credit card. She cut the call off with a thanks and directed Lynley to take the next turning. She explained before he could ask any questions.

"Jones ID'd the vic as Jessica Reid and got her work address from tax records. She works at a hairdressers in Camden."

"Right, we'll see if anyone can tell us anything."

"We're not thinking this is a mugging gone wrong are we?"

Lynley shook his head. "The amount of violence suggests otherwise, although what it is is still up in the air. We'll need to keep a mugging in mind though until we can disprove it." He vented his frustration at the traffic they were now stuck in with a growl.

Barbara ignored that. "Once we've started the interviews we'll have a better idea if it was personal or not." She fiddled with the heating controls until he harrumphed at her again, and she brought out her note book instead. She began to jot down notes.

"Remember we'll need to ask for a phone number as well."

"Already got that on the list."

"What else?"

She rolled her eyes. "How long have I been doing this?"

He made a face that she guessed was an apology so she recited her list. "Baby's father, any problems they know of, best friend, close with family, any idea why she would be in the park at night."

Lynley nodded as he turned out of the traffic into a quieter side street.

"This isn't another one of your short cuts is it?" Barbara asked then laughed at the expression on his face. The rest of the ride passed in relative quiet though when they were parked she did demand they stop at one of the shops dotting the street the hairdressers was located in.

She came out carrying two bottles of water and she tossed one at him. "Wouldn’t want you getting cranky from the heat."

"Remind me again which one of us that is supposed to be the cranky one?"

She deliberately didn't answer him, instead took a drink then stuffed the bottle in her bag as they walked two shops down and into the hairdressers.

It turned out that all the staff knew Jessica. She was well liked and they regularly went out and hosted dinner parties. Until recently, that is, when Jessica hard started calming down once she found out she was pregnant.

"Although she stopped flirting as much on our nights out, once she had started dating Adam." one of them, Sarah, added.

"Adam?" Lynley asked.

"Her boyfriend, they were dating for a couple of months."

"Why'd they break up?" Barbara asked and they all shrugged.

"She never actually said, just came in one morning a couple of months ago in a horrible mood and said they had broken up. She never said anything else when we asked her about it."

"Did you know if he was the father?"

"Yes, she said she was going to tell him, but I don't know if she got around to it. It was kind of a bad break up but she wasn't going to deny her kid a father because of that she said."

"What about her family, was she close to them?"

Sarah nodded. "Especially her sister. We met Alison a couple of times when she was visiting and they were always on the phone. She'll probably know more about Adam," Sarah added as Barbara jotted down the information.

"Were you out last night?" The women all shock their heads. "Any idea of why she would be in the park? She cut through there going anywhere?"

Tash answered, "No," but Sarah looked thoughtful.

"Was she mugged, was that why?" Sarah broke of into a little sob, and bit her lip.

"We don't know yet, that's why were checking all angles. So no one you know would want to hurt her?"

Both women shook their heads.

Barbara carried on. "Any idea of how Adam would have reacted when she told him?"

Tash shook her head. "We didn't really know him that well. We met him on one of our nights out but never really saw him after that."

"Does he have a surname?" Sarah and Tash looked at each other.

"It was something like Williams or Willet but she only said once a while ago and like I said, we never really spoke to him that much."

Barbara nodded. "Do you have Jessica's phone number? We need to check her phone records."

Tash reached into her pocket and recited it off

"Okay, thanks for your help." Barbara shut her notebook, jammed it back in her bag and they exited as the two women started comforting each other again.

"You know, sometimes I feel superfluous." Lynley said wryly but with a small smile and she couldn't help but smile back. They reverted back to business though as he unlocked the car.

"We need to find out this Adam, see if she told him about the baby."

"We'll get his name off the phone records now we have her number. We need to determine if it wasn't a mugging after all."

Lynley looked askance at her as they sat in the car and did their belts. She shrugged her shoulders. "There's every chance it could be, could have been someone on something, desperate enough to be that brutal or out of it enough not to realise."

She saw him clench his fingers around the steering wheel.

"Look, I agree it's far too violent for a normal mugging, but we need to rule it out before we go searching for suspects, especially since we've got CCTV footage to wade through."

He relaxed his grip and nodded as he pulled out into the traffic. "Did we get the footage sent over?"

"Not yet, but I've managed to borrow Winston for a bit. He's going over to the centre, see if anyone remembers anything, trying to find her on the footage."

Lynley snorted. "That could take hours."

"Yeah, which is why we need to narrow things down a bit."

"All right, you've made your point."

They ground to a halt in the traffic again just as her phone rang again.

Barbara answered it, jotting down the information someone whose name she didn't quite catch gave her and she shut the phone down. "Oxford Police have notified her family."

"How'd they take it?"

"Distraught, as you might have guessed." She adjusted the fans again. "Her dad's a retired inspector from near Oxford, so we've been warned to tread carefully. He and her sister are going to the hospital, which will save me going out to Oxford to interview them."

"Did they say much else?"

"Not really, once Oxford found out they were coming here they thought they'd better leave it to us."

Lynley snorted. "All right, you do that while I go through the CCTV with Winston and wait for the phone records to come through. We'll head back to the station." The traffic started moving again and the rest of the ride passed in silence.

~~

Barbara left Lynley and Winston faffing about looking for the handset for the TV, rolling her eyes at them as she organised her notes before heading back to the car.

Her fans were just as ineffective as before and she pulled her top away from her, wafting a little in the privacy of her car to try and cool down a little.

It didn't work.

She made her way back up to the maternity wing, the nurses nodding at her in recognition and directed her towards the small room Jessica was in. She winced slightly when she stopped in the doorway and saw the bruising on her exposed arms. She tried not to stare, especially when the young woman sitting beside the bed rose.

"Sergeant Havers, I'd just like to ask a few questions," Barbara introduced herself and the other woman did the same.

"Alison Reid, Jess' sister." Alison turned to the gentleman beside her. "This is our Dad." Alison faced him. "Dad, we'll head down to the cafe, you stay beside her right?" The man frowned but nodded when he saw the look on her face.

They left the room and as they headed towards the lift, the same route she and Lynley had taken earlier, Alison spoke. "Sorry about that. You probably know he was in the Police so he'd spend all the time making sure you were up to the job rather than giving you any answer." Alison smiled wanly in what Barbara thought was an apology of this but she could see the red rimmed eyes and the marks on her hands from gripping them so tightly that meant she wasn't sure what it said.

"It's fine." Barbara said anyway.

The walk was a little tense but they got a cup of watery tea and grabbed a table, the cafe mainly empty at this time in the shift and visiting hours not for another hour and a half.

"I just want to ask a few questions about Jessica, I heard you were quite close."

"Well, we're always texting or on the phone, someone to share the gossip with." Alison cradled her teacup tightly.

Barbara nodded. "Did she tell you who her boyfriend was?"

"Just his first name. Adam. She said she wasn't ready for him to meet Dad yet and get the inquisition."

Barbara smiled weakly, "And did she say if he was the father?"

Alison nodded. "She only found out after they broke up."

"Was there any specific reason why they broke up?"

Alison nodded again. "She phoned me in tears one night because she found out he was married."

Barbara winced in sympathy. "That had to hurt."

"She was crying right over the phone, I've never heard her like that. I was going to come and see her because she was so upset but she didn't want me to, said I would be better coming when we had planned."

"And when was that?"

"About a week after that. She was going to introduce him to me." Alison looked down at her hands. "We ended up watching a film together over the phone."

Barbara kept jotting this down in her notebook. "Do you know if they kept in contact?"

Alison shook her head. "She said he kept trying to phone her, especially just after they broke up but she didn’t answer any of the calls."

"So she hadn't told him about the baby?"

"Not yet but she said she was going to when she phoned yesterday. She got him on the phone and he was going to come around."

"So that was the last time you heard from her?"

Alison nodded. "I tried phoning her last night to see how it had went."

"What time was this?"

"The back of ten but there was no answer so I left her a message." Alison gripped her tea cup so tightly her knuckles started going white and Barbara thought she was going to cry again. "I just thought that they were still talking, I mean he wasn't coming around till 8."

Barbara let her collect her thoughts for a minute before she carried on. "Just in case, did she mention any problems with anyone, anything unusual in the last couple of days?"

Alison shook her head. "The only thing on her mind was the baby. She was joking about some of her customers but everything was fine. Nothing at all." She took a sip and a deep breath. "Dad says that you'll be looking at someone close to her for this."

Barbara paused.

"He says it's too violent for a mugging."

Barbara put her pen down. "We are looking into everything at the moment."

Alison nodded. "Well, you'll have to won't you."

Barbara didn't answer and she let the silence carry on for a moment. "Thank you for your time, I'll let you get back to your family." She stood. "Do you have a contact number I can reach you on?"

Alison nodded. "You ready?" She recited her phone number off and Barbara caught it, nodded her thanks and left Alison as she got in the lift back up to the maternity wing.

~~

Her stomach rumbled as she got in her car and she glanced at the clock on the dash. That would explain it. She pulled over at a sandwich shop near the station, managing to get a space to park just round the corner from it and texted Lynley.

 _U or W had lunch?_

The reply was quick, she had only got to the shop door when her phone beeped.

 _W has, I've not. :(_

She sniggered to herself at his use of an emoticon and set about ordering lunch for the both of them.

~~

She found them both still in his office, the remains of Winston's lunch on Lynley's desk and she rolled her eyes at the over enthusiastic response she got when she handed Lynley his sandwich and cake.

"Thanks, the smell of Winston's was being to get to me."

"You could've went for it yourself you know," she smiled, amused.

He didn't reply, just started eating.

Winston brought her up to date with what they had so far as she sat down and started her lunch. "Phone records should be here in an hour or so and we haven't spotted her on the footage of the park yet but we are only at 11pm."

She brushed some of the crumbs away. "Sister said she tried to phone her last night at around ten but it went to her voice mail. Jessica was going to tell Adam about the baby last night though so she never thought too much about it."

Lynley nodded. "Well then it shouldn't be too much longer before we catch her on CCTV." He looked directly at her. "Could she have been coming back from Adam's?"

Barbara shook her head. "Alison said she was having him round to her place to tell him."

"If it didn't go well then maybe she went out for a walk to clear her head? The park isn't that far from her flat and if she was upset then she might not have been thinking clearly." Winston spoke up.

"It's possible," Lynley looked thoughtful, "I didn’t get the impression from her friends that she would have though."

Barbara agreed. "I think she would have phoned Alison instead, she seemed to phone her, tell her nearly everything."

"Apart from Adam's last name." Lynley tossed his empty wrapper in the bin with more force than was strictly necessary.

She tried not to look too concerned about the sign of frustration.

"Alison did say that Jessica managed to convince him to come round so when we get the records, any number that pops up recently after about a three month break is likely to be his."

Lynley nodded and they watched some more of the footage, nothing much happening. Barbara got up when a uniform knocked on the door to let them know the phone records arrived.

"That was quick." Lynley commented.

Winston grinned. "A little charm goes a long way."

Barbara and Lynley both snorted and she grabbed the records and started going through them.

They worked in mostly silence, Winston getting up to make them tea, 'the joys of being the junior officer' he moaned, and the occasional bit of chat.

She had narrowed the numbers down to two possibilities when Lynley and Winston both sat up straighter.

"Play that back."

Barbara looked up at the screen.

"Is that her?"

They all peered closer, "looks like it," Winston said as he paused the playback and they stared at the image of Jessica being carried into the park. "Can't tell who's with her but that’s definitely the outfit she was found in."

"Get a copy off to the lab, see if we can get it enhanced."

Winston took the disc out, "Will do," and he disappeared off to the lab.

Lynley leaned back in his chair. "Not a mugging then."

She nodded. "Definitely not. The question is was it personal?"

Lynley looked through her notes. "How much did she tell her sister?"

"Very nearly everything, and given she told her about Adam being married as soon as she found out, I suspect,"

"Adam's married?" Lynley looked shocked as he interrupted her.

"Sorry," she pointed to her notes, "Alison told me that's why Jessica broke it off."

Lynley looked closely at her notes and she let him have a minute before she carried on, "Anyway I think she would have told Alison, or her friends at work if there was a problem."

Lynley mulled that over for a minute before sitting up straight. "All right, we'll check out her flat, see if she left anything unusual or if any of her neighbours saw anything."

"Yeah, I'll get Winston to phone the phone company back. Maybe he can get them to release the names for these numbers sometime this century."

Lynley chuckled and waited for her as she left a note on Winston's desk.

~~

They met the landlord at the outside door and Barbara tried not to roll her eyes as he started asking far too many questions about their investigation. She nearly dismissed him as vulture but once they were inside and had managed to get rid of him she jotted his name down in her notebook, just to make sure there wasn't another reason he was so interested.

She put her notebook away and Lynley tossed her a pair of gloves before she could dig hers out of her bag.

"SOCO sending memos round again?"

Lynley nodded. "Apparently some officers are forgetting."

"Let me guess, Anderson?"

Lynley smiled. "No culprits were named."

They started in the living room. It was fairly neat, with a few magazines lying on the coffee table, an empty cup beside a chair and cushions scattered about. There were pictures on the bookcase in the corner, one of her and her sister, a family photo that must have been at least ten years old with a woman who Barbara thought must be Jessica's mum. The bookcase itself contained mainly hairdressing books, a couple of the latest chart books, mainly crime fiction and a pile of pregnancy books that on closer inspection were library books, the due date stamped as next week.

The kitchen was directly off the living room and Barbara wandered through while Lynley looked around the rest of the living room. It was small and tidy and there was nothing much of interest, just the usual tins, and a fair bit of fresh fruit and veg. There was a calendar stuck to the fridge though, the date of her scan pencilled in, a note of Alison coming to visit and a midwife's appointment scheduled for the beginning of next month. There was another note stuck to the door, a reminder to take her vitamins, eat properly and arrange maternity cover. Nothing struck Barbara as out of the ordinary, nothing indicating she had any problems and she turned to look for Lynley only to discover her had joined her in the kitchen. There was barely enough room for the both of them in the kitchen and she ended up brushing past him as she went back into the living room.

"Anything?" he asked.

"Nothing so far, but she might have kept something in her bedroom if she didn't want company seeing it."

He nodded.

"Nothing out of the ordinary here, although there has been a spill cleaned up on the floor beside the coffee table."

They moved across the lounge and Barbara spotted the patch on the floor.

The bedroom was done in a soft pink and purple, slightly messier than the rest of the flat but nothing five minutes of tidying wouldn't clear up.

The bed was made though and Lynley walked over to her bedside cabinet. On top, in a simple wooden frame, an ultrasound picture was displayed and loopy writing underneath indicated it was taken at 15 weeks.

Barbara stopped from heading towards the wardrobe and watched him for a minute as he looked at the picture. She felt her stomach drop as she realised the thoughts that must be going through his head and she dithered for a moment then veered down the side of the bed towards him. He was deeper in his thoughts than she realised for he never noticed her move and he nearly jumped when she laid a hand on his sleeve. He smiled at her, somewhat forced and he shook his head to forestall any questions. He took a deep breath.

"Well it looks like she was looking forward to the baby anyway." He placed the frame back down. "Did she keep a diary?"

Barbara moved over to the table in the corner of the room. "Nothing in sight but," she pulled open the top drawer under the table and pulled out a netbook. "Maybe she did it on her computer. I'll see if anything pops up in her internet history or folders."

Lynley nodded and started looking at the pictures on the bedroom wall as she plugged the computer in. Fortunately it wasn't password protected but once it loaded up, she found that most of the files were of pictures.

Lynley joined her and commented that the pictures on the walls were combinations of the woman they had interviewed this morning or her sister. She glanced at him for a second but nothing was showing in his expression so she carried on.

He leaned over her chair, arm brushing her shoulder as she flicked through the files. "Bingo." She clicked on a folder named Adam. There were about twenty pictures, mostly just the two of them, obviously taken themselves, in various poses, in the kitchen, on her couch, in a park, though the one dated first had the rest of her friends in it.

"Well at least we know what Adam looks like now. We just need a surname. Anything else?" Lynley asked.

"Family pictures, a budget sheet, and a few ebooks. Just about to check her history." She clicked onto the browser. "Mainly baby and hairdressing sites. Facebook as well." She clicked on one and it turned out Jessica was still logged in. She managed to navigate her way to the recent posts link.

Lynley had hunkered down at this point, head behind her shoulder, so close she could hear him breathe. She turned her head to look at him and nearly bumped into him. He smiled sheepishly and backed away ever so slightly. She looked back at the screen. "Looks like its mainly styling tips or," she clicked again, "best things to satisfy cravings. If she was having problems it's not obvious."

Lynley stood up as she switched the computer off. "All right, all the same, bring it in, we'll get someone to analyse it properly, there may be something hidden."

She nodded and gathered the power cable for the netbook, then filled in a receipt for it and left it on the table.

Lynley was already out the door, knocking on the neighbour's door when she caught up with him. There was no answer and they looked around on the landing, checking on the flat above Jessica's.

No answer either.

They headed back to the car, and Barbara put the computer in the back seat. She turned round to catch Lynley staring into space.

He collected himself before she said anything and he gave her an apologetic smile as he went to start the car.

"Are you really all right?" She couldn't take anymore of the light footing around she was doing and he stopped, hand still on the key. He sighed, not looking at her as he answered.

"I'm fine, Barbara,"

She couldn’t help but let out a small snort of disbelief and he smiled slightly at her, looking back out the windscreen when he spoke again. "I am fine, it's just," he paused, "well a case like this is horrible at the best of times."

They sat in silence for a moment

"I'm sorry."

He looked properly at her. "You've nothing to be sorry for."

She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it. "I know what you mean, Barbara." He started the car. "To be honest, it's hurting less and less and some days it doesn't hurt at all."

"Which of course you worry about."

He looked at her,

"Just saying," she held her hands up in front of her as if for protection.

He sighed. "You're right." He pulled out into the road and changed the subject. "Will I drop you off at the station or your place? I think it's marginally closer."

"The station. There is no way I'm getting the tube in tomorrow." She tried to cover exactly how worried she still was.

"All right. I want to meet up at eight though, see if we can't lean on the phone company to get the details a bit earlier."

"Okay."

He put the radio on, some sort of easy listening station that blended into the background and they fell into silence again, though that didn’t stop her glancing across at him occasionally to check he was he was.

~~

 _Tuesday 13th August_

Lynley was in before her and was, well he wasn't smiling but he looked like he'd managed to get some sleep at the very least. Paperwork covered his desk.

"Someone was in early this morning."

He threw her a mock dirty look and then ignored her.

"Any luck with the phone company yet?"

"The details are on route, according to the email I've just received."

"They're couriering them over?" She was a little surprised.

"Apparently in this day and age of data loses, it's harder to lose track of a wad of paper than an email. Someone will have to sign for them."

She rolled her eyes.

"Come on, we'll leave Winston to sign for it while we interview the neighbour."

"Right. I'll drive today. Had enough of yours yesterday."

"Have you got your air conditioning fixed yet?"

"It works perfectly fine."

"I refuse to believe that."

"Well it works better than yours anyway." Barbara grabbed her keys anyway and Lynley fiddled with the system what felt like the whole drive over.

She was rather proud of her restraint in not saying anything.

~~

They parked outside Jessica's flat again, the neighbour peering out the window despite the early hour as they walked towards the main door. He buzzed them in when they identified themselves.

"I take it you're here about Jessica? The landlord just popped round to fix the tap, told me what happened. Poor thing, such a terrible thing to happen."

"Did you know her well Mr... " Lynley started the interview.

"Andrews, Bob Andrews. Well a fair bit, she was always popping round, seeing if I needed anything from the shops. Apologised if she had her friends round and they got a little rowdy. Was a great help during the winter, made sure I was all right. I checked in on her too sometimes, it must be lonely living alone and having a baby on the way. She was excited I could tell but lonely none the less."

They exchanged a look when he finally stopped for breath. "Did she say anything about the father?"

Bob shook his head, "Not to me, I didn't want to pry either. I thought it was that nice young chap that kept coming round."

"Adam?"

"Yes, that's the one. Only talked to him a couple of times but I saw him coming and going a lot, although not so much recently."

"But you have seen him recently?"

"No, but Jessica told me yesterday when Liam, that's my eldest, picked me up, that he was coming around. I was quite pleased for her actually." Bob paused for breath. "Oh the poor man. Have you told him yet?"

Lynley spoke. "We're still trying to identify him at the moment. So you left before he arrived?"

"Oh yes, never saw him. Why, do you think he had something to do with? Surely not, he was such a nice young man, a GP you know."

Barbara scribbled this down. "We're just keeping an open mind. Did she tell you about any problems she was having? Being followed or what not?"

"No, dear, she never said anything like that" He sat down heavily in his chair. "I can't imagine anyone who would want to do such a thing. Oh dear."

When he didn’t say anything else and the news looked like it was finally sinking in, Barbara and Lynley exchanged another look, one that clearly said this interview was over. "Thank you for all your help Mr Andrews, we're sorry to have bothered you."

Bob made to get up but Lynley waved him down. "Don't worry, we'll let ourselves out."

They paused outside his door. Lynley sighed as she put her notebook away. "Well that was a waste of time."

"Yeah, but at least that's another person who can say what she was planning to do that night."

"I suppose." He looked at her, his frustration evident. "Any word from Winston yet?"

She checked her phone. "Yeah, Adam Wilkinson. Got his home address, though if he's working we might have missed him."

"We'll see if any one else lives there, perhaps they can tell us something. Perhaps the wife knows."

"About that, d'you think she knows he was having an affair?"

"Motive you mean?"

"Well possibly. If he came here last night, perhaps she had suspected him. She could have followed him."

Lynley looked deep in thought as they headed back towards the car, Mr Andrews following their progress from his as they went.

"It's entirely possible. We'll know more if we can catch anyone at the house."

He started tapping impatiently on her dashboard as she drove towards the Wilkinson's place.

She took advantage of a red light to look at him. "Are you going to do that all the way there?"

Her eyes flickered to his fingers on the dashboard.

He smiled apologetically. "Sorry. Just got a feeling about this."

She refrained from answering as the light turned to green and the car drew away again.

~~

They knocked on the door of the address they had been given. There was no answer but as they started down the path back to the car the door opened.

"Sorry, I was on back shift last night. Only just up." A tall attractive blonde was smiling from the doorway.

"Mrs Wilkinson?"

"Yes, can I help you?"

"Detective Inspector Lynley, my partner Detective Sergeant Havers. Is your husband in?"

"No, he's at his work at the moment. What's this about?"

"Someone he knew, a Jessica Reid, was attacked the other night, we just wanted to talk to him, see if he had any information." Lynley smiled pleasantly to downplay their interest.

Her face didn't change at all when they mentioned Jessica's name, and Barbara scored through a note. Mrs Wilkinson looked rather relieved in fact.

"Where does he work?"

"The Oak Health Centre in Ealing. Hold on a minute, I'll write it down for you." She disappeared from the doorway and Barbara turned to Lynley.

"She's either a very good actor,"

"Or she doesn't know," Lynley finished.

Mrs Wilkinson came back, piece of paper in hand. "Here you go."

"Thank you very much, we're sorry to have bothered you." They smiled and turned down the path back towards the car.

"Is she alright?"

They stopped and turned to face Mrs Wilkinson again.

"The woman who was assaulted, is she alright?"

Barbara grimaced. "She's in a serious condition at the moment."

Mrs Wilkinson looked crestfallen. "Oh. Well, I hope you catch whoever did it." Mrs Wilkinson looked downcast as she shut the door.

Barbara started the car. "Definitely doesn't seem as if it was her."

"No it doesn't which narrows the possibilities for motive."

They made their way to Ealing. "Well, we'll just see what Adam has to say."

~~

They found themselves being glared at by a collective of receptionists as they waited for Adam to finish his surgery. Lynley avoided looking at Barbara as she mumbled under her breath about having to wait and wanting to kill snobby receptionists.

As if they would turn up to waste their time. Well, okay, maybe if they were trying to crack someone but they just wanted to interview him.

It seemed like an age before they were ushered in to Adam's office and Lynley dragged the spare chair across to the desk, angling it so that both he and Barbara sat opposite Adam.

Adam smiled. "I'm sorry, Louise didn't tell me what you wanted to talk about."

Barbara flipped open her notebook as Lynley started, not smiling in response to Adam. "Jessica Reid."

"Ah." Adam's smile vanished. "What exactly about Jessica?"

Barbara looked up from her notes and Lynley simply stared at him. "She was found yesterday morning unconscious and brutally beaten." She said.

Adam looked shocked. "Unconscious?"

"Yes, she's still in a critical condition in hospital and the baby didn't make it."

"Baby?"

Barbara took note of the fact that he looked less shocked at this.

"We know she was planning on telling you last night, asked you round to talk." Lynley said.

Adam frowned, "Who told you that?"

"Her sister and her next door neighbour. Did you?"

Adam turned away to look out the window. "No, I thought she just wanted to see me again." He slumped in his chair. "Perhaps if I had…"

"When was the last time you saw her?" Barbara asked

"About three months ago, we broke it off then."

"May I ask why?" Lynley took over.

Adam grimaced. "She found out I was married. I never meant to cheat but I met Jess and it just sort of happened."

"And you've had no contact since then?"

"Not since the text she sent asking to see me."

"Was she having any problems when you knew her? Any one causing trouble?"

"You think this was personal?"

Lynley smiled reassuringly. "We're keeping all options open at the moment. We don't want to miss anything."

Adam started drumming his fingers on his desk. "No, she never mentioned anyone but we haven't seen each other in three months. Is she going to be all right?"

"She's in a very serious condition. The baby didn't make it."

Adam's fingers stopped drumming on the desk. "Oh." He visibly swallowed. "Do they think she is going to make it?"

"At the moment the doctors aren't sure."

Barbara scribbled something else in her notes, catching his slump out of the corner of her eye and Lynley carried on regardless. "She was four and a half months pregnant, is there any possibility that the child isn't yours?"

Adam looked frozen and unsure of himself for the first time since they walked in. Seemingly he came to a decision. "I'm not sure. We never said anything about other people."

"Well you didn't anyway." Barbara couldn’t help but mention.

Lynley frowned slightly at her but she ignored the look and looked back at her notes.

Lynley started again. "Well, we would like to make sure. I'll arrange for a DNA sample to be taken for a paternity test."

Adam paused. "Only on the condition my wife doesn't hear about this."

"Dr Wilkinson, we won't be telling your wife anything unless it pertains to our investigation. However, experience has shown that spouses inevitably find out."

Adam sighed. "All right, all right. I'll get one of the nurses to take a blood sample,"

"We'll send someone over, procedure and all that." Barbara spoke up. "You know how it is."

Adam nodded and when Lynley made no move to get up, Barbara stayed seated as well. They could see Adam get more uncomfortable and try to cover it up.

He gave in. "Is that all? I have another surgery after lunch and I have a pile of paperwork I need to get through before then."

Barbara looked at Adam. "One last thing. Can you tell us where you were Monday night?"

Adam looked furious. "How dare you! Suggesting that I would want to hurt Jessica, let alone a baby," he sputtered.

Lynley intervened, playing the good copper. "We just need to check alibis of everyone Jessica knew."

Adam gripped his pen tightly and Barbara saw his knuckles turn white.

"I went for a run after work. Monday is my night for going around Hyde Park."

"Bit of a trek, isn't it?" Barbara asked.

"It's a habit I started when I was a student. Now I really must be getting on with things."

Barbara smiled sweetly. "Certainly. Thank you for your time." She stopped as she went out the door. "We'll arrange for someone to come around this afternoon."

Adam nodded and practically pushed them out the door.

Barbara felt the first tinges of suspicions form but kept them to herself for the moment.

~~

They stopped for lunch at a small cafe near the station, a good proportion of the customers from the force so no one would object over much if they discussed the case over lunch. They ordered lunch then grabbed an empty table.

"What did you make of him?" Lynley asked as she took a sip of her drink.

"He was definitely hiding something and he was lying about not knowing she was pregnant."

Lynley nodded. "Do we think he went around there the night before?"

"Yeah. From what her sister said, he was constantly trying to get in touch with her after they broke up so when he got a message from her out the blue? Definitely."

"It's just a shame we can't prove he was there."

Barbara gave a mmm of agreement. "Uniform did a door to door but either nobody saw anything around that time or they weren't in."

Lynley sat back. "Any ideas on what he's hiding?"

Barbara sighed, played with her cutlery. "Could have been anything. Possibly he did go around and they had an argument. That would make him nervous. Although it was interesting to note he was put out to realise we knew he was supposed to be going around that night."

Lynley smiled at her. "Yes, it was rather. His reaction to being asked for an alibi was interesting as well."

She opened her mouth to reply but stopped when their food arrived and they took a break from discussing the case as they started to eat.

"I meant to say, Mother's having a small dinner for Juliet's birthday next week, wants to know if you're free. I told her you were."

Barbara rolled her eyes.

"Well you are."

"That's not really the point." He looked a little saddened so she carried on. "How small is small?"

"Just really family."

She paused, chip in midair as she looked at him.

"Don't look at me like that, Mother wouldn't have invited you if she didn't want you there."

She didn't say anything, just munched on her chips as she thought that over. "I'll not have to dress up to posh will I?" She said finally.

Lynley smiled, "It's just a small dinner."

"So I'll pack my best dress then?"

Lynley laughed and resumed eating his lunch. Around bites he spoke again.

"Which reminds me, you really should call me Tommy."

She looked up from playing with her ketchup.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

He ignored her question, asking one of his own. "How long have we worked together now? Eight, nine years? I think we know each other well enough."

Barbara nodded.

"And I have managed to get over calling you Havers all the time."

Barbara snorted, "Yeah, you have." She ate another chip. "All right then, just don't expect it to happen overnight."

He smiled again and finished his lunch, the light hearted atmosphere lingering for a while.

~~

The office was bustling as normal as they made it back in, still as hot and sticky as ever and Barbara fought with her desk fan as she arranged for someone to take Adam's DNA. Her next task was to phone the hospital.

Not good. Jessica was still unconscious, and though the doctor didn't say much more, she recognised that tone of voice.

Barbara slumped in her chair as she put the phone down. She sat catching the cooler air the fan blew in her direction for a minute, only jarred out of her thoughts when Winston spoke.

"Going that well?" He asked from his perch on the corner of her desk.

"About that yeah. Yours?"

"Not bad. Just the paperwork left to do." Winston grinned.

"Show off." She swatted his arm, though she was smiling.

Winston wandered off to sit at his desk and she went turned back to her computer to set in motion someone to try and check Adam's alibi. She wasn't holding out much hope but perhaps someone had seen him running. That done, she rose and went to find Lynley.

He wasn't in his office and she started to wonder if he was all right but he rounded the corner just as she started to head back to her desk, a large envelope in his hands.

"I've managed to get the crime scene pictures, and the pictures of her injuries."

Barbara nodded. "Any of the other forensics back yet?"

Lynley looked at her like she was daft for even asking but answered her anyway. "I asked but it doesn't look like there is much to go on at the moment. Of course, the CCTV image hasn't been processed yet."

"The way our luck is going that won't be much use either."

Lynley ignored her pessimism and followed her into his office. Shutting the door, he sat in his chair and spread the first set of photos across his desk.

The pictures showed the park where Jessica had been found, the spot where she had been found more specifically, along with snapshots of the scattered places they had found her handbag and her purse.

There was silence as they both pored over them. Nothing out of the ordinary stood out for Barbara and once she was satisfied she had looked at them all thoroughly she looked at Lynley.

"Are you seeing something I'm not?"

Lynley sighed and leaned back in his chair. "Unfortunately not. Looking at the pictures alone, it almost reads as a mugging gone wrong but if it had gone that badly wrong," he leaned forward and grabbed the photo of her purse, "in most cases whoever did it would have surely ran further before getting rid of the purse? They didn't even empty it."

"And CCTV tells us it didn't even happen in the park. It looks as whoever did it was trying to make it look like a mugging," Barbara mused.

Lynley nodded at her assessment, "But they overcompensated which makes me think it wasn't planned and whoever did so panicked."

"Still leaves us with no suspect at the moment."

"No, but it definitely suggests that it was personal rather than a random attack."

They fell into silence again, both staring at the pictures.

"There must be something we're missing here." Lynley sighed in frustration.

"Let's see the other photos then."

Lynley scooped the photos up and pulled the other set out from their envelope. They spread them out quickly and when they had a chance to look at them, they were too shocked to say anything.

Barbara was the first to find her voice. "Shit."

The sound of her swearing was enough to jar Lynley out of his silence. "I knew it was bad from the description but…" He trailed off, unable to speak as he continued to stare.

There was a deep gash in the back of her skull, Jessica's hair was still matted from the blood when they had taken the pictures, her left cheek was swollen and starting to bruise where she had been punched in the face. Photos of her arms showed more bruises forming, individual finger marks making themselves known, her legs, her pregnant belly covered in faint foot marks that had Barbara checked now would no doubt be darker.

She had to look away for a moment, quelling the sick feeling in her stomach and after taking a deep, steadying breath she spoke again.

"That has to be personal, far too much violence for anything else."

Lynley didn't reply and she covered the picture he was staring most at with her hand. It jarred him again and he looked up at her and Jesus, the pain in his eyes made her want to hit something or cry. He looked quickly downwards again, obviously trying to cover up his reaction.

"Definitely, it's doubtful that a random attack would be that violent." His voice was mainly level, though Barbara ignored the wobble since he was trying to.

"It is possible I suppose but it just doesn’t feel right."

She thought for a moment, giving him the time to try and recover, then checked back in her notes. "There were definitely no other reports of anything else at all that morning but I've not checked in with uniform yet today about their door to door."

Lynley frowned.

"See if they've come up with anything, I'll keep looking these over."

Barbara hesitated slightly and Lynley caught it.

"I'll be fine, Barbara."

She raised an eyebrow but moved anyway. She stood in the hallway outside his office, keeping him in sight as she tried to catch a hold of Jones on his mobile. No answer but if he was interviewing someone then he wouldn't pickup. Just when she was about to go back in he phoned back.

In this case no news was not good news.

She sat across from Lynley, somewhat relieved when he didn't startle from having been lost in his thoughts again, his mind clearly back on the case itself.

"Anything?"

Barbara shook her head.

"Nothing. Not even any reports of any unusual behaviour in the area for the last couple of days."

Lynley sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"So it's personal then."

"Yeah but the question is who? I mean I know Adam was lying about something but everyone else says she had no problems and there was nothing in her flat to say she was worried about anything."

"Had she filed any harassment reports?"

Barbara shook her head. "I checked when the file came in yesterday. Nothing on record."

"So the only problem she had we've been able to find is relating to Adam."

"Yeah. He's definitely fishy and his alibi is basically a wash."

Lynley looked down at the pictures still spread across the desk. "Well the partner is usually our first suspect and as you say, there is definitely something fishy."

"Question is do we want to interview him again? Press him on knowing about the baby?"

Lynley looked at his watch. "No, I don't want to spook him into clamming up. We've nothing concrete at all and the DNA and forensics won't be back for a while yet."

Barbara nodded. "Nothing's back from IT about her computer either. The only thing they said was there was nothing obvious but they hadn't done a full check yet."

"You think she may have had a problem she wasn't telling anyone about?"

Barbara paused, thinking before she spoke. "No, I got the impression, especially from her sister, that she would have said something." She looked down at the pictures. "Unless it escalated suddenly and she didn't get the chance to tell anyone."

Lynley nodded. "It's possible." He checked his watch again. "Why don’t you see if you can catch her workmates again? Perhaps they noticed anything strange or she mentioned anything to them."

"Okay, I'll try and catch her sister again as well." She put the photos back in their envelope and took them with her when she left, just in case he dwelled too much.

~~

Barbara rang the door bell and Lynley answered in less than a minute. She felt somewhat bemused when he directed her straight to the kitchen, and guided her into a seat. His kitchen was miles bigger than hers, though she was more comfortable in it than she had been this time last year, even if she was still slightly jealous of it. Instead of sitting down with her, he moved across to the cooker and things became clearer when he returned with a plate of pasta and placed it down in front of her.

Cooking was a good sign she supposed, though seeing this side of him was still a little strange.

He finished off his own plate as she started hers, and he let her finish before he asked, "Find out anything?"

Barbara shook her head. "Neither her friends or her sister remember her saying anything at all or acting any differently from normal." She put her plate down. "Apart from the things she was changing because she was pregnant."

"Aside from not going out so much?" He was curious.

"Just that she was eating better, trying to take better care of herself. Said she never mentioned about meeting anyone new, pretty much stuck to her close friends."

Lynley looked thoughtful. "So Adam is our main suspect?"

Barbara nodded as she slouched back into the chair. "Yeah. No one else at the minute."

She tried to get comfy but the hardback chairs weren't designed for comfort really.

He noticed her squirming and they moved through to his living room, sitting side by side on the couch, opposite the TV.

They lapsed into silence. "I hate waiting around on forensics." Barbara spoke first.

Lynley smiled. "I know, almost as much as you hate this heat."

Barbara groaned but was glad that the topic moved away from the case. "We're in London, we're not supposed to be this hot!"

Lynley laughed and she picked up the cushion beside her and hit him with it. "It's not funny!

"Yes it is." He was smiling.

She made as if to hit him again with the cushion but he picked up the TV handset and said, "You know, I think it's time for Coronation Street."

She glared at him as he changed the subject but put the cushion down as he turned the TV on.

She kept the cushion within easy reach though, just in case.

~~

 _Wednesday 14th August_

Barbara woke slowly, a beam of light slipping in through a gap in the thick curtains and hitting her in the face. She nearly fell onto the floor before she realised that she wasn't in her own bed, but still on Lynley's couch. She must have fallen asleep, and he must have shifted her during the night because there was a pillow where her head had been and a sheet covered her.

She was just blinking herself into proper awareness, thinking the couch was much more comfortable than her own, when she became aware of being watched.

Lynley, Tommy, it was far too early in the morning to be thinking properly about what to call him, was standing in the doorway leading to the kitchen, a cup of tea in his hand, and smiling softly at her. He pushed himself off the doorframe and vanished into the kitchen for a moment.

She wasn't sure what to think about the fact he had been watching her sleep so she tried not to as she sat upright, the sheet pooling at her waist.

When he reappeared, he had another cup in his hand and a couple of strides later, he placed it in her hands.

"Thanks."

He sat on the arm chair opposite the couch, and looked directly at her, a worried expression on his face.

"Just don't sleep too well in this heat. Sometime it catches up with me."

She shrugged away his concern.

He looked mostly satisfied at that and jerked his head towards the kitchen. "Once you've had breakfast, we'll stop by your flat before heading in." Barbara nodded and stretched as he turned the breakfast news on, sipping his tea.

She was familiar enough with his kitchen by now that she found the jam and bread without any fuss and a couple of minutes later she wandered back into the living room munching her toast, trying not to get crumbs everywhere.

"Anything interesting?"

He looked up from tying his shoes, frowning slightly at the crumbs that managed to escape. "Just the usual. Nothing about our case at all."

Barbara nodded again and headed back into the kitchen to finish her toast.

~~

An anxious uniform waiting by your desk was never a good sign and Barbara winced as the first words out off Jones's mouth were, "Sorry to bother you, Ma'am, but I thought this might be related to your case."

Jones handed her a report and Barbara sat down heavily as she read it.

"When did it come in?"

"Bout an hour ago. Sam got the call but remembered I'd been out that way doing a door to door the other day."

"She say anything about it?"

"Just that the son reported it as a burglary. She went out about twenty minutes ago."

Barbara nodded. "Okay, thanks."

Jones nodded his head in acknowledgement and wandered out of Barbara's sight.

She barely had time to slump back in her chair before Lynley popped out of his office.

She spoke before he could. "We might have a new lead."

He looked interested and she carried on. "Remember Mr Andrews?" At his nod she added, "His son found him dead in his flat about an hour ago."

"God." Lynley briefly shut his eyes. "Who's handling it?"

"Uniform at the moment, but we're going to check it out to see if it's related."

He opened his eyes and nodded.

~~

There were a couple of uniforms standing outside Mr Andrew's house, one trying to console a dark haired man, the other clearly looking out for them.

Sam, for that was who was watching out for them, led them inside and briefly ran through what the son had already told her.

"Liam came round to take his dad out to Tesco's for his weekly shopping when he found him at the bottom of the stairs."

Lynley looked at the door, saw it was completely undamaged. "I take it they didn't come in through the front door?"

Sam shook her head. "Liam had to unlock it, was a bit worried when his dad wasn't answering the door bell. There is a smashed window in the kitchen door though, it looks as if that's where they got in."

Lynley nodded. "Has the son said anything else? Anything missing?"

"We've not managed to get that much out of him yet. He's still in shock. He didn't notice anything other than his dad right away and he froze up when he looked at the doorway so we haven't asked yet."

"All right. See if he's got anyone he can contact, and we'll talk to him more after Lafferty gets here and removes the body."

Sam nodded and disappeared off back outside.

Barbara and Lynley snapped on a pair of gloves and kneeled down either side of Mr Andrews.

"Well it certainly looks like he fell. Nothing obvious at the moment." Barbara noted.

"No, nothing. We'll have to see what Lafferty says. He could have disturbed the burglar, got a surprise himself,"

"Or it wasn't a burglary," Barbara finished.

Lynley flashed a smile. "Indeed."

They stood, Lynley walking around the body as they entered the living room. The place was a mess, the chairs overturned, cushions pulled from them, drawers emptied onto the floor and some of the cabinet doors lying wide open, their contents in chaos.

They stepped carefully through the mess littering the floor and made their way through to the kitchen. The back door was open, the deadbolt having been pushed back, and it swung slightly on its hinges in the faint breeze. Shards of glass covered the doormat.

"The glass is on the right side for being broken from outside." Barbara commented.

""Yes it is," Lynley replied as he looked at the door, carefully searching the glass for anything they could use.

A spot of red amongst the glass on the floor caught Barbara's eye.

She smiled. "I think we just got lucky."

Lynley looked down at her, and smiled as he too saw the spot of blood on the small piece of glass. "We'll speak to SOCO about it."

She stood and they peered out the back garden. "Someone could have climbed the fence there, the houses around the back have garden paths someone could have easily sneaked down."

"The question is did someone sneak in at random or because they thought he was an easy target?" Lynley added.

Barbara considered it for a moment then sighed. "Another thing that'll just have to wait."

They stepped back into the living room, moving through the items covering the floor. There was nothing obvious missing, the TV and hi-fi still there but if they had been after valuables, well there was no way at the moment of telling what was missing.

They looked around aimlessly for a minute.

"More than likely, they were upstairs at one point since he fell." Lynley supposed and at a temporary loss for thought, they gingerly made their way up the stairs.

There were a couple of fibres caught in the banister joints but they looked the same as Mr Andrew's clothes and a couple of fresh looking gouges could have been made as he tried to steady himself.

They entered his bedroom undisturbed apart from a jewellery box, open and lying empty on its side.

"Might have got spooked when he came across Mr Andrews and just left after grabbing something obvious." Barbara thought out loud.

Lynley gave an hmm, possibly in agreement, but was frowning as he looked around the tidy room.

"I don't think our burglar knew precisely what they looking for," he finally said. "Downstairs is a mess compared to here."

"But if they were surprised up here first, why would they spend all the time downstairs turning it upside down?" Barbara shook her head at her own thoughts. "No, Mr Andrews must have heard the commotion downstairs and went to investigate and caught whoever it was on the stairs."

Lynley interjected, "It's strange though. Downstairs must have caused a large noise, loud enough to be noticed from upstairs. Most burglars don't want to be caught, they are only that loud if they don't think someone is home."

"Perhaps they thought the house was the same layout as Jessica's? That they were two separate flats instead of one house? Saw the lights go off down here and though it was all clear."

"It's possible, but even then they wouldn’t want to risk disturbing the upstairs flat." He sounded unsure and they looked around the room again.

"This room does feel like an after thought though."

"Yes, it does feel off."

Barbara snorted. "Yeah, we seem to be getting a lot of them at the minute."

Lynley looked at her. "Well if this is connected with Jessica's attack, the main question is why? The obvious one is that he is her next door neighbour."

"Perhaps he'd seen something he'd not realised the importance off?"

Lynley didn't answer, just looked around the room again, searching for something they had missed. "Could be. I don't want to jump ahead though until we know more." He looked unhappy at the thought though. "Not much more we can do here at the moment."

They heard the engine of a motorbike pull up and stop outside and Lynley strode across to the window. "That's Lafferty now." He moved out of the room and Barbara had to rush to follow him down the stairs.

They paused on the bottom stairs to they greet Lafferty.

"What do we have here then?"

"Seems like a burglary," Lynley said as Lafferty knelt down next to the body.

Lafferty looked up at them. "Seems? Wait, let me have a look before you say anything else."

They let him work, trying not to lean on the walls in case they contaminated anything before SOCO arrived.

"I'd say he died late last night but I'll need to check." Lafferty said after a while. "Looks likely the fall killed him but,"

"You'll need to check," Barbara finished.

Lafferty smiled. "Get back to me after lunch, I should have the preliminary done."

"You mean it's not going to take all week?" Lynley raised any eyebrow in mock surprise.

"You take a couple of days to bring a verdict of natural cause one times and you never hear the end of it." Lafferty sighed dramatically and both Barbara and Lynley smiled as they walked past him.

She murmured, "see you later," and got a smile in response.

~~

They headed back into the office and Barbara found a package on her desk from the photo lab.

"Excellent," Lynley said and grabbed the envelope.

"That the enlargements?"

Lynley nodded as he spread them across her desk.

His enthusiasm quickly faded. The figure carrying Jessica was still in shadows, the hood covering most of their face but the height and features they could see looked masculine.

Not that that helped much.

Lynley sighed and he dropped the picture down onto her desk. "No further forward then."

"Well we're not any worse off are we?" She tried to be optimistic to counter his frustration and picked up one of the pictures. She examined it closely. "I suppose you could say they look about Adam's height."

Lynley grunted and Barbara put the picture down. "None of the other forensics back yet?" Lynley looked up.

"I'll go on check on them."

She sat down at her desk and stretched slightly before she started digging up more data on burglaries in the area.

She looked up sometime later when Lynley threw a sandwich at her. She looked questioningly at him.

He shrugged. "Went down to bother the lab in person."

She smiled. "Bet they loved that."

He ignored that. "Finger prints on Jessica's purse and handbag are too smudged to make a comparison and all the hairs were consistent with Jessica's."

"Damn," Barbara grumbled into her tea at the lack of anything useful.

Lynley looked at his watch. "Come on, we'll need to leave to see Lafferty in five minutes." He headed back off in the direction of his office again, leaving her to finish in peace. She saved her work and joined him at his car.

~~

The mortuary was just as cold as ever. It smelled the same too, though she had gotten used to it over the years.

Mr Andrews body was still on the table when they walked in, their gowns rustling and hell to wear with the heat. Lafferty was standing looking at the x-rays but he looked up when they walked in.

"Ahh just in time."

"What, no quote today?"

"I'm having an off day. Something to do with the heat."

"You and Barbara both," Lynley quipped and Barbara glared at him. He ignored it and looked expectantly at Lafferty.

"Just done the preliminary at the moment, and the x-rays are just back. You can definitely tell he fell, and looking at the x-rays, he broke his neck."

"Do you think that'll be cause of death?" Lynley asked.

Lafferty sighed. "As I said it's only the preliminary but it's a reasonable presumption at the moment. You can see here, one or two bruises have started forming on his head, and I suspect what you will be most interested in is this."

He switched the lights off and turned on an ultraviolet lamp then pulled the sheet covering Mr Andrews body back.

Two hand shaped bruises glowed into view on his chest and both Barbara and Lynley sucked in their breath.

"Definitely pushed then."

Lafferty nodded as he put the lights back on. "He fell backwards after he was pushed and I'll bet his neck snapped when he landed. I also discovered scrapings under his nails that looked like paint. I've sent them off to be analysed."

Barbara spoke up. "Yeah, we saw gouges out of the banister like he'd tried to stop himself falling."

"What colour was the banister?"

"White."

Lafferty nodded. "The chips were white." He pulled the sheet back up and looked up to find them looking expectantly at him. "As I said it's just the preliminary but more than likely I won't be ruling it an accident."

"Okay. Thank you." Lynley said and they headed out into the heat, their gowns immediately coming off and into the bin. They held off talking about anything related to the case, Barbara at least thinking things through as they drove. Any conversation there may have had was halted when Lynley's phone rang.

He tapped his earpiece and answered it. Barbara tried not to get too impatient as she waited until he tapped it again to hang up.

He pulled into a side street and did a U-turn before heading back out in the opposite direction from where they were headed. "That was Sam," he explained. "The son is feeling up to looking around the house, wanted to know if they should wait for us."

Barbara nodded, "Yeah, we can see what we missed." She looked out the window and sighed. "You know these days I feel like I'm spending half my life in the car."

Lynley gave a small smile. "Would you rather go by tube or bus?"

"God no, I think I'd boil to death, or arrest someone."

Lynley sniggered and pushed the fans up higher.

She sighed in happiness.

~~

Sam and the other uniform from this morning were standing in the front garden with the son and another man Barbara didn't recognise.

They walked up the path and were introduced to Liam and Evan, Liam's boyfriend who was there for moral support apparently. Liam was certainly leaning on him, and Evan murmured reassurances as they stepped into the doorway and past the bottom of the stairs where Liam had found his father this morning.

Barbara and Lynley stood in the middle of the living room while Liam shut his eyes briefly and squeezed Evan's hand before he started with the cupboards on the far side.

"He really just kept his bird books in here, as well as the family photos." He found another box, a cupboard along from the last, and pulled it out.

"His passport, birth certificate, everything, it's all still here." Liam choked back a sob, his back to them for a moment as he tried to regain himself.

"He kept Mum's old jewellery and a few other bits and bobs up the stairs." He took another sweep around the living room.

"It doesn’t look like anything is missing from here."

They wandered into the kitchen and Liam pulled open a drawer. Inside, there was a wallet and Liam pulled it out and looked through it.

"His pension money and all his cards are still here."

Barbara and Lynley exchanged a look. It was looking less and less like a normal burglary.

Again they paused at the bottom of the stairs and Barbara winced in sympathy as Liam's fist tightened, his knuckles turning white as they saw the gouges out of the banister paintwork. Evan gently pushed him on and they found themselves in the entrance to the main bedroom.

Liam immediately headed for the jewellery box. "All Mum's jewellery, it's gone,"

He pulled open what hadn't been already opened.

"Bastard even took her wedding ring!"

Liam faltered a little at this, took a step back and sat down heavily on the bed. He dropped his head as Evan sat beside them and Lynley gave Evan a jerk of the head to let them know they would wait outside.

They looked around the other bedroom while they waited, but it looked untouched, something Liam confirmed five minutes later when he felt up to it again. They quietly murmured their thanks to Liam and Evan, saying sorry for your loss as they left them in the peace to compose themselves.

The car ride back to the office was quiet, neither saying a word, the upset atmosphere from the house lingering over both of them.

~~

They settled for another bottle of cold water instead of tea, then sat in Lynley's office, quietly mulling things over before speaking.

"So the only thing stolen was the jewellery. It's far too," Barbara thought about the word.

"Unprofessional?" Lynley supplied.

"Yeah, the other valuables would have been found with an extra couple of minutes, not even that, given the time it would have taken to open all the kitchen drawers."

"Yet the living room was completely overturned, missing things and undoubtedly making a lot of noise." Lynley leaned back in his chair, looking more mystified than frustrated at the moment. "Definitely not professional."

"It seems like too much of a coincidence that his flat was supposedly burgled two days after Jessica was attacked." Barbara said.

Lynley leaned forward. "Definitely, especially since it was the evening after we talked to him. The question is why?"

"Well either they were both targeted for some reason, or whoever attacked Jessica thought Mr Andrews saw something and tried to cover it up."

Lynley nodded in agreement. "Given that we haven't found anything to suggest either of them had any problems, I'm leaning towards the latter. There were no break ins or any other activity near there were there?"

Barbara shook her head. "No, not when I checked at lunch." She fiddled with her notepad as she thought. "It does suggest then that Jessica was attacked in or near her flat. Will that be enough to get SOCO to have a look?"

Lynley looked thoughtful. "Hopefully. I'll get on to them."

Barbara looked down on his notes while he talked on the phone, trying to find inspiration as his voice faded to a background hum.

"They'll get someone round in tomorrow afternoon." Lynley's voice broke her out of her reverie.

"Right."

She was fiddling with her notepad again and Lynley looked amused.

"What?"

"It's just annoying me."

Lynley raised an eyebrow in question.

"That whoever did this is smart enough to wipe prints and not be seen by anybody we can find, or get caught enough on CCTV but is stupid enough to overcompensate and make the attacks look less like a burglary and a mugging."

She took a deep breath as she slump back in her chair.

"But they did leave a spot of blood behind on the broken glass."

"Yeah, but"

"It could just be simple panic,"

"Hmm."

"All right, who do you think the someone is?"

"Well, we have nothing on the boyfriend other than he's the obvious suspect. We can't prove he knew about the baby and as daft as his alibi is, we can't prove he wasn't where he said he was either."

Lynley rubbed his face. "You're right. We really need to interview him again,"

"And if he gets suspicious?"

"Currently it's a separate case, he was around there often enough, he's admitted that, perhaps he knew something about Mr Andrews that we don't."

Barbara smiled and started to say something else but was cut off by the phone ringing.

Lynley answered, "Lynley," and went deadly quiet.

Barbara could tell something was wrong by the way his fingers tightened on the phone and his face hardened slightly.

"Thank you." He put the phone down but didn’t say anything else.

"Sir?" Barbara started to worry.

Lynley didn't answer but stood and walked towards the window, seemingly lost in thought.

She stood as well and walked towards him. "Tommy?" She tried when he didn’t notice her approach.

This reached him and he looked surprised to find her standing next to him at the window.

"That was the hospital. They had to take Jessica back into surgery."

"How bad?"

"She didn't make it." He stared back out the window.

"Shit," she muttered under her breath but Lynley didn't bat an eye, just continued to look out the window.

Barbara clenched her fists, took a deep breath and tried to calm herself enough to move across to his desk and phone SOCO.

She managed to get Jessica's flat inspection moved up now it was officially a murder enquiry and with that done, she stood watching Lynley for a minute. She could feel her stomach start to squirm at Jessica's fate, at Lynley starting to close himself off, at the mess this case was turning out to be.

"Are you all right?" Barbara eventually broke the silence when it was clear Lynley wouldn't.

He turned to face her, hands in pockets, his face almost unreadable to her, which showed the effort he was making to appear unaffected. "I'm fine."

She raised an eyebrow but said nothing. Prodding further at the moment would only cause him to clam up further and she didn’t know if she could handle that so she just watched as he started tidying the piles of paperwork on the desk, clearing it away and acting like he was getting ready to go home for the night.

Her suspicions were confirmed when he looked up and plastered a false smile on his face.

"Pub?"

She must have hesitated a moment too long as his face darkened, "I'm perfectly capable of drinking reasonably."

"I know that," she spoke, "I'm just not sure this is a reasonable time."

He ignored her, grabbing his jacket and starting to close the door. He looked at her expectantly and she walked out into the corridor. She leaned against the wall while he locked the door, her gut still squirming at all her thoughts and when he started striding down the corridor, she hurried to catch up, decision made, it was better to try and slow him down once at the pub than talk him out of it. Besides, if she was honest, she could do with a drink as well.

She caught up with him at the main doors. "I'll drive, yeah?"

He relaxed ever so slightly and nodded as she took his keys from him.

That was indication enough that something was badly wrong.

~~

Barbara deliberately chose a pub near her flat, easy walking distance in fact, in case things took a turn for the worse.

She hated that she had to plan like that but there was no way in hell she was losing him again and short of handcuffing him to his desk or somewhere similar she wasn't exactly what else she could do to stop him.

They'd been to the pub a couple of times before and it was friendly enough, the music didn't play loudly and it was just a touch too early for the just after work crowd so it was fairly quiet.

She ordered two plates of chips before he could order the first round of drinks and merely glared at Lynley when he tried to say something about it.

He must have been in worse shape than she thought because he simply nodded and grabbed a seat at an empty table against the wall. Barbara sat down beside him and from their vantage point they could see the whole of the pub, see who entered and catch the news or daytime TV that was showing on the small screen in the corner.

He picked at his plate when the chips arrived 10 minutes later, eating reluctantly when she glared at him again.

She tried to make idle conversation but the plates were clear before he said anything to her.

"What do you want?"

"Pint'll do."

He nodded and wandered off to catch the attention of the barman. She sighed and slumped down in her chair. She really wasn't sure about this at all but they both needed to blow of steam and if she thought about it, any of it, any more then she might just scream.

Lynley returned a couple of minutes later and placed her glass down in front of her. She mumbled a thanks but he never responded in words, just started drinking his own whisky.

He gulped it down quickly then sat playing with the glass, sliding it back and forth across the table between his hands, like he didn't know what to do with them.

Before she had even got a quarter of her pint drunk he was up at he bar again.

He took his time, and he was slightly less coordinated when he came back, and she cursed as she realized that he'd had a drink up at the bar before bringing his own pint back across. She slowly sipped her own, the desire just not to think warring with worrying about him, anger swimming around her stomach and making her feel sick.

He drained his pint slower, finishing at the same time she did. Wordlessly he bought another round in.

Barbara sighed but accepted it. He drank slower this time, melting back into the chair and watching fixedly at the TV. She cast her eyes over to see what was so interesting.

Cricket highlights, of course.

She rolled her eyes then followed his lead and ignored him, looking down into her drink before she briefly shut her eyes.

Lynley must have been paying her more attention than she thought though, for when she opened her eyes again, she caught his gaze flickering back to the screen and saw he was matching her drinking speed. Slightly reassured, she settled further into her chair, slowing her sips and savouring the pint, savouring not having to think at all finally, worry lessening in the pit of her stomach.

They sat like that for another 10 minutes, the TV changing over to show a weather forecast and she groaned out loud as the weather girl announced tomorrow was to be another hot and sticky day.

Lynley chuckled softly into his drink, his face relaxed enough to show her he was on his way to being tipsy and immediately the worry came back.

She spoke to try and ignore the worry, the first words either had said in a while. "We're in Britain, we shouldn't be having this weather." That got a weak smile, albeit one that was quickly obscured by him draining his glass. She tensed when he stood again and quickly spoke again, making a show of looking at her watch.

"You know I could go dinner. Takeaway?"

He looked at his watch too. "You only had chips an hour ago!"

She shrugged.

He sighed. "One more then dinner."

She paused, then nodded. He walked up to the bar and she consoled herself with the knowledge that at least it would be the last one and that he was still mainly steady on his feet. He hadn't really been drinking lately and she doubted if she could manage to prop him up long enough to get back to her flat.

He returned with the drinks and they did the same as before, slowly sipping their drinks and watching the TV, Barbara finding a sudden interest in cricket.

Neither spoke again until they were finished, and even then they never said much as they stood up, both steady on their feet, and walked outside.

It was slightly cooler than earlier but the sunshine showed no sign of leaving soon as evening started. A two minute walk and she was letting them into her flat, a slight wave of mortification coursing through her as she realised it was still a mess but Lynley ignored it and she realised he'd seen it in worse states.

She threw her bag down on the coffee table and grabbed the phone. "What do you want?"

He sat heavily down on her couch and looked thoughtful for a moment. "Chinese."

"The usual?"

He nodded again.

She phoned the order in and sat down opposite him on her favourite chair. "It won't be long." Silence fell again and she fussed with a loose thread from the fabric of her chair, redid the loose ponytail her hair was in and generally ignored the fact she was at a loss of what to say. She was about to turn the TV on for a distraction, any distraction from the awkward air that was forming but Lynley filled gap instead when he stood and started to pace in front of her.

"Well if the cases are connected, and the chances of them not are ridiculously small, then we're looking for someone who thought Andrews saw something."

Barbara opened her mouth to speak but he carried on.

"Now Adam definitely looked spooked when we mentioned that Andrews knew Adam was coming round to see Jessica that night, but," he paused for breath, still thinking, still pacing.

She was saved from trying to say anything by the doorbell ringing. She grabbed her handbag as she made her way to the door, leaving Lynley behind to his own thoughts.

She rummaged for her purse, dropping the bag down onto the floor as she opened the door. It was indeed the food and she quickly paid and took the bag.

"Food's here," she called when she passed Lynley, going straight into the kitchen. He looked up, startled from his thoughts and followed her, grabbing plates from the cupboard she kept them in.

They quickly dished up, the smell of sweet and sour chicken, and peking beef filling the air. The silence was comfortable now they had something to do and they settled themselves around her small dining table to eat.

He never returned to his thoughts about the case until their plates were clear and they had settled back into their respective seats in her living room.

He was fidgeting as he gathered his thoughts though and she managed to forestall anything he might say.

"Can we just leave the case for an hour or two, please?" she pleaded.

"We've got next to nothing to go on, we need to spend all the time we can!" He raised his voice as he spoke, standing as well so that by the end he was shouting and towering over her.

She looked up at him wide eyed, still as a statue and that seemed to bring him back to himself. He dropped back to down the couch and looked horrified.

"Barbara, I'm sorry, I just,"

He looked stricken.

"I know."

Her voice was soft.

He was busy staring down at the floor, leaning forwards, elbows on his knees bracing him, hands tightly fisted.

She left him and filled a glass of water in the kitchen. She stood still for a moment, letting her breathing return to normal, and the fear seep from her body. When she felt calm again, she returned, placing the glass on the coffee table in front of him and sat beside him on the couch.

"I'm sorry," he apologised again. "This case is just bringing back more memories than I suspected." He was still staring at the floor as he said this.

"I know."

He turned his head to look at her.

She snorted lightly at his questioning look. "You're an open book sometimes," she hesitated, still getting used to the name, "Tommy," She softened it with a ghost of a smile.

He smiled slightly as well, and then turned back away from her. "I suppose I am to you."

He reached across and took a sip of water, leaning back against the couch when he finished. He angled himself towards her.

"So are you, you know."

She looked curiously at him.

"An open book. You don’t need to worry about me."

She snorted again and he smiled in response. "All right, you don’t need to worry too much."

She slouched back against the couch as well, muttering under her breath that she couldn't help herself. She shut her eyes trying to pretend she hadn’t said that.

He must have heard anyway as when she opened her eyes again, she saw his features had softened and he must have been studying her as he glanced away as soon as she noticed.

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute.

"You're right, we could use a distraction for a bit. What's on the TV?" He broke it this time and she could tell he was struggling to sound cheerier than he actually was.

"No idea. You know how to work the handset."

He rolled his eyes at her response and reached across to grab the handset, and seconds later noise filled the room.

~~

Barbara jarred out of her sleep at a particularly loud song on the TV. They must have fallen asleep. Her head had fallen back against the couch and had slipped to where Lynley's, Tommy's arm was lying along the back and his fingers had tangled in her hair where her head met his hand. The TV was still on, some reality crap showing, and she gently untangled her hair and stood, moving her neck to stretch out the muscle ache that had formed from the awkward angle.

He was still asleep and watching him, she had to admit he looked more relaxed, almost cute in sleep. She snorted at herself for where her thoughts were going, dismissed it as a result of being half asleep, and headed off to get the spare pillow and a sheet.

She could hear him start to snore as she headed back and she had to prod him twice before he would awaken enough for him to understand what she was saying.

"You'd be far more comfortable in your own bed." He blinked rapidly at her, and started to get up.

She rolled her eyes.

"It's too late, you might as well stay here." She put the pillow down on the other end of the couch and let the sheet unfold as he rearranged himself. He took the sheet out of her hands and murmured a thanks as he slipped his shoes off. He covered himself with the sheet and lay down, head on the pillow, all still half asleep and she could have sworn she heard him start to snore softly again as she made her way to her bedroom.

~~

 _Thursday 15th August_

Barbara woke to the now familiar sounds of someone bustling around her kitchen. It was some reflection of how things had turned out recently that she was somewhat used to it now and didn't immediately start panicking.

She wasn't entirely sure what to think of that.

Instead, she went for a quick shower, getting dried and dressed for the day before stopping at the edge of her kitchen.

Lynley, Tommy since this was nowhere near a work situation, was pottering about her kitchen in socked feet, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and looking utterly comfortable.

Another thing that didn't faze her at all, and before she could think about it, he turned and saw her.

"Good, you're up." He pushed a cup of tea into her hands then turned back to the cooker.

She sniffed the air and peered over his shoulder to get a look at the pan. "Is that an omelette? How long have you been up?" If she hadn’t seen him sleeping last night, she would have thought he wasn't getting any sleep at all.

He smiled. "Long enough. Your couch isn't exactly comfortable."

She smiled back. "It wasn't designed for someone your height. Next time I need a new couch I'll keep you in mind."

He laughed and then returned to his previous thought. "Anyway, long enough to start these and do some thinking."

She opened her mouth to speak but he beat her to it.

"Not about the case, don’t worry." He flipped the omelette then turned the ring off.

She took a sip of her tea as she waited for him to carry on but he grabbed his cup from the worktop beside him and didn't say anything.

"Anything in particular?" she prompted.

He put his tea down, looked down at his feet and took a deep breath as if to calm himself, before he looked back at her. "You."

She had to hold on to her mug to make sure she didn't drop it.

"Oh. Anything in particular?" she asked again, trying to sound casual.

"Just how lucky I am and a few other things." He smiled and reached up to grab two plates from the cupboard.

"You're not going to tell me?"

He paused, the plates hovering in mid air before he placed them down on the worktop. He took a step forward towards her and gently took the tea out of her hands, placing it down beside her. Just when she was expecting him to say anything else, he stepped even closer and looked down at her, causing her to tilt her head up to look at him.

He didn't move, and she could feel herself start to get nervous. She was on the verge of saying something, anything, when he smiled nervously and leaned down.

He brushed his lips against hers, lingering ever so slightly before he pulled away completely and picked up his tea.

He leaned against the worktop as she stood still, eyes wide open.

"Oh."

He looked down again, fiddling with the handle of his mug. He looked up as she cleared her throat.

"So, um, how long have you been thinking," she paused, "like that?" she finished weakly.

Tommy shrugged a little. "I'm not really sure,"

She was still processing, still wasn't sure what exactly she wanted to say so she smiled a little instead.

That seemed to be enough to relax him and in the instant that she saw the tension leave his body she tried to put her disbelief to one side. She picked up her tea again and stood beside him, close enough that her side pressed against his as she leaned over the cooker.

"What exactly is in it?" She asked as she peered into the pan. She turned to look at him. "Can I trust your cooking?" She tried to lighten the atmosphere.

He turned his head to look at her, a big smile gracing his features.

She couldn't help but smile back, even as he acted wounded about the slur on his cooking skills.

~~

Barbara dropped him off at his flat to change and as she got stuck in traffic again, she found herself humming along to one of the daft upbeat songs that was playing on the radio. She caught herself and tried to stop before she got into work. Winston would never let her live it down if he heard her.

She made it to her desk unscathed and set up for the day. She opened her email to discover the paternity test result of Jessica's baby had just arrived.

She opened it quickly, scanned the lines of text and felt a sense of relief that the father was indeed Adam Wilkinson.

That was one less thing for them to chase down.

She buried herself in paperwork and data, trying to connect any dots at all. Well at least she tried to. The disbelief that she had managed to push aside this morning came back with a vengeance and she barely made it through two lines of data before another thought would pop up.

Had she really been so blind not to see it coming? It had been a while after all but surely she would have seen the signs?

No, she thought, it was more likely she had purposely ignored them because there was no point in getting her hopes up.

She had long known he was the most important person in her life, and sometime in the last year she had realised that she was falling a little in love with him. She'd purposely clamped down on thinking about it any further because there was no way he would feel about the same for her, even if she was one of his best friends. And if he'd popped up in a couple of her dreams, well, that was entirely natural because they worked so closely together and she could admit to herself that he was attractive.

She sighed and gave up on the pretence of work, barely any further forward than when she started this morning and let herself get her thoughts out the way.

She wasn't afraid to admit the prospects this brought up were a little bit, okay a lot, terrifying. She hadn’t been kidding when she'd told him years ago that she really hadn’t had any proper relationships and the potential to muck this up was huge.

And could they work still together? She'd gotten better over the years but she still worked best with him.

Fuck, she really couldn't think about this now. Why hadn’t he got his timing better and she was working her way up to panicking when her computer beeped at her.

It was only a new email, nothing important but it jarred her back to reality momentarily.

She caught Lynley, Tommy, Lynley walking past into his office and she had to take a deep breath to try and concentrate on the case. Her phone rang before she could try getting anywhere though.

"Havers."

"Detective Sergeant? I got one of your fliers through my door about a crime on Sunday night."

"Yes, that's me," she rummaged for a spare bit paper and a pen. "Can I ask your name?"

"Of course, Rose Morrison, I stay at number 14. I take it this is about that poor young girl?"

"Yes it is. We're just trying to see if anyone saw anything that night."

"Well I was packing for a couple of days away, but I'm not too sure if I saw anything, dear."

Barbara resisted the urge to sigh. "Why don't we come round and speak to you? Sometimes you remember more than you think."

"That would be lovely. I'll be in all morning as I'm not meeting Edna until one o'clock."

"Very well, Mrs Morrison, we'll see you shortly."

"Right, dear."

The phone went dead and Barbara tried not to get her hopes up too much, though she may have been smiling.

She knocked on Lynley's open door and sat down opposite him. He looked up at her and smiled back.

She had another near moment of panic but she managed to overcome it.

"What news do you want first?"

"Good or bad?"

"Both reasonably good."

He sat back in his chair. "Well don’t keep me in suspense then."

Her smile grew. "Lab just got back to me. Adam was definitely the father."

"One less thing to chase down."

She snorted softly but shook her head to dismiss it when he looked enquiringly at her.

"Secondly, we may have a lead."

He sat upright. "Oh?"

"Just had a phone call from someone who wasn't in when the door to door was done. She lives opposite Jessica, was in on that evening but she's not sure if she can help."

"It's still a chance."

"Yeah, it is."

~~

The silence in the car was beginning to feel awkward to her so she fiddled with the radio to distract her. If Lynley thought anything of it, he didn't say anything.

They arrived and found Mrs Morrison had laid out tea and cakes laid out for them. They managed to fend off the cakes but they each ended up with a full teacup in their hands and Barbara had to balance hers with her notebook.

She let Lynley do the talking.

"Mrs Morrison,"

"Call me Rose, dear. Mrs Morrison makes me feel old." Rose laughed and they smiled back.

"Rose, then. You were in on Sunday night?"

"Yes, I was packing for a couple of days away with my daughter's family. They live up in Newcastle you see."

"Did you happen to see anything unusual across at Jessica's flat? Any visitors?"

"Only the usual caller she had, although I hadn't seen him in a while."

Barbara and Lynley exchanged a hopeful look.

"Are you sure it was him?"

Rose looked thoughtful for a minute.

"Well, I didn't see him properly but it looked like the same car."

"Could you describe it?"

"It was a dark green Yaris. Edna's got one in red." Rose took a bite of her cake and Lynley tried not to get too frustrated.

"Did you happen to get the licence plate?"

"Oh dear, I never looked. I'm hopeless at remembering those sorts of things. Same with phone numbers."

Barbara could hear Lynley sigh and she was trying to fight disappointment herself.

Lynley tried a new tactic. "Did you see him at all?"

"I saw the back of his head as he was going in."

"Can you be sure it was him?"

Rose's face fell. "No, I just saw the back of his head." Rose put down her teacup. "I'm terribly sorry, I feel like I've wasted your time."

Lynley forced a smile. "Not at all, you've been most helpful, Rose." They stood. "You've got our number if you remember anything else. And thank you for the tea."

Rose nodded and bustled them to the door, apologising again as they left.

They were both visibly disappointed when they got in the car.

"Well it was good for a while." Barbara remarked after a while, trying to stop herself from becoming too frustrated.

Lynley tried to look on the bright side. "It does throw Adam's alibi into question, although it will never stand up in court."

"It might be enough to spook him though when we interview him again though." Barbara said as they turned back into the office car park.

Lynley nodded. "We can certainly try. He's still our main suspect and it's enough to give us another look. You did check what car he drives, didn't you?" He looked at her as her finished parking and turned the ignition off.

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, she was doing that far too often lately. "Yeah, a dark green Toyota Yaris, 55 reg." She smiled at him.

He nearly jumped out the car, certainly lighter and not as he had been.

"Should we interview him after lunch? Might put him a little more off guard if he's busy at the time."

Lynley smiled. "Sounds like a good idea."

~~

They ended up in the station cafeteria, the noise surrounding them as they quietly ate.

Lynley waited until she was nearly finished her sandwich. "This morning, I didn’t mean to make you awkward."

"I know you didn't."

"I know it was a bit out of the blue,"

"Yeah, but," Barbara looked around the busy cafeteria. "This isn't the place for this." She stood and tidied away the remains of her lunch. He followed suit and followed her out the building to the back doors where some of the smokers took their breaks.

There were only one or two other smokers about and the noise of the traffic made it hard for their conversation to travel far.

Barbara leaned against the wall as she started talking. "It wasn't so much awkward as," she paused and he started to look worried. "Well, I'm not exactly your type am I?" She blurted out what was possibly her biggest fear.

He looked a little speechless, as if that wasn't expected to hear.

"I wasn't aware I had a type." He frowned.

She looked askance at him and laughed at the expression on his face, her nerves lessening.

After a minute of thinking she spoke again. "You're my best friend and you mean a hell of a lot to me. But this is huge and I just didn't let myself think of it cos it terrified me."

"How?" Tommy was looking slightly terrified himself now.

"In case I mucked it up!" Her voice went rather high on the last words and she took a breath to calm herself. "I don’t want to lose what we already have."

"Oh," Tommy started to pull away.

"Not like that," Barbara sounded exasperated, with herself mainly, for not finding the right words.

"I mean I don’t want to lose you by putting my foot in it cos," she bit her lip, didn't say the thought that was forming, went with, "now I know it's not just me," she trailed off and that seemed to satisfy Tommy and he stepped closer to her, shoulder pressed onto the wall as he leaned against it and looked at her. "It's sort of easier I suppose." She managed to finish.

He smiled. "So it's not just me then?"

"No." She couldn’t help but smile back despite the unsettled feeling still in her stomach.

They stood like that for a minute, letting the noise of the traffic wash past them.

"So what now?" Tommy spoke up.

"Dinner?" Barbara shrugged her shoulders as if she was unsure as well. "Then I suppose we need to talk about work. After this case is over though, I don’t think I can handle it at the moment."

He nodded and another thought struck her.

"What about your family?"

"What about them?"

"Well if I'm going down with you next week for Judith's birthday,"

"Ah." Tommy blew out a breath. "Well I suppose we just need to act normal and hope they don’t realise anything just yet."

Barbara looked incredulous. "That's," she couldn’t finish as she tried not to laugh.

"Okay it's not the most brilliant of ideas," he looked a little put out. "We just won't tell them anything yet."

She barely managed to hold back from laughing fully but still gave him another incredulous look.

He rolled her eyes at her.

"All right, you have a point. We'll just not answer any questions until we're ready to."

She finally managed to speak. "I can't see that going down well."

"Neither can I to be honest." He slumped against the wall. "I suppose that's another thing we'll need to talk about."

"Yeah." They fell quiet again, both glancing at each other and at a loss at what to say next.

Fortunately they were saved by the beeping of Tommy's phone as he received a text message.

He check his phoned, dismissed it as just from Juliet and they exchanged a smile before he looked at his watch.

"Come on, this should be the perfect time to interview Adam."

They went inside and headed towards the car park and she felt his hand land briefly on the small of her back as he held the door open for her.

~~

It was the same snippy receptionist who greeted them when they arrived at the health centre, although this time they weren't kept waiting as long to see Adam.

Adam however, was just as annoyed at being interrupted during his work day again.

"I hope this is important, I'm already running behind."

"Just a few things we would like to clear up."

Adam sighed and turned in his chair to properly face them.

Barbara spoke first. "The DNA results came back this morning. You were definitely the father of Jessica's baby." She let that sink in but Adam didn't give much away, simply shut his eyes and let out a small sigh.

She and Lynley looked at each other and she gave a small shrug.

"We'd also like to pick your brains again." Lynley started.

Adam opened his eyes and gave a weak smile. "What ever I can do."

"It's looking more and more like a personal attack and we were wondering if you had had anymore thoughts on who would hold a grudge that badly?"

"Personal? I though the papers said it was a burglary?" Adam looked directly at Lynley. "I mean her next door neighbour was a burglary."

Lynley smiled tightly. "You can’t believe everything you read in the papers."

Barbara carried on. "So there is definitely no one you can think of?"

Adam frowned. "Are you sure it wasn't a burglary? I honestly can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt Jessica."

"We're fairly certain." It was Barbara's turn to smile tightly at Adam.

Lynley took over. "There was one last thing, Doctor,"

Adam tilted his head to look at Lynley.

"We don’t appreciate being lied to." Lynley's voice changed from polite to cold, and neither of them were smiling any more.

Adam's eyes widened. "I wouldn’t waste your time, not about Jessica,"

"We have a witness who saw you go into Jessica's flat on the night she was attacked."

The only reaction Adam showed to this was shifting in his chair, the wheels squeaking slightly as it moved. "The neighbour who was killed."

"No," Lynley answered. "Someone else." He didn't say any more, but then he didn’t need to as Adam's face tightened and the chair squealed as he squirmed.

Adam's fists were clenched. "They must be mistaken, I was in the park, on my run." He managed to look slightly more relaxed. "I didn’t meet all of her friends though so I don't know it could be one of them?"

His recovery from the shock was quick but not quite quick enough for Barbara to have to repress a smile of satisfaction. They'd managed to spook him.

"Is that all? I should think you should be getting on with interviewing the rest of her friends, given they would be more up to date with what was going on in her life."

Lynley's expression didn't change but Barbara could tell he wanted to smile. "We'll keep in contact. Thank you for your time." Lynley was polite enough but the second the door closed behind them, he broke out into a grin.

They managed to keep quiet as they exited the surgery but the discussion quickly started when they got in the car.

"He's definitely jumpy now. And did you see how eager he was to think it was a burglary?"

"He also seems very up to date with goings on for someone who was out of her life."

"So we are definitely thinking it's him now, not just that he's our best suspect?"

"Definitely."

~~

If only proving it was as easy as feeling it. Back at her desk, Barbara phoned down to see if SOCO had managed to find anything.

She was just about to head back to Lynley's office with the results when she saw an older man walk in. She recognised him from the hospital as Jessica's dad.

"Crap."

She sighed. Visits from family members during the investigation generally didn't go well, for a multitude of reasons, and given he had been a DI himself, there was every chance it was going to go drastically wrong.

She hurried to Lynley's office, knocking as she went in, and tried to look surprised to find someone else there.

"Oh sorry, sir," She started to back out of his office but Lynley looked rather relieved and introduced her.

"This is my sergeant, Barbara Havers,"

Mr Reid nodded at her. "We met briefly at the hospital."

"Mr Reid was just asking about our investigation," Lynley started.

Mr Reid jumped in. "I know all about how you can't talk about the investigation, I've had this conversation myself a thousand times, I just," Mr Reid paused as he looked overwhelmed. "Is there a good chance you'll catch the bastard?"

Lynley was a second too long in answering and Mr Reid cut him off.

"One of those is it then." He sagged against the wall and shut his eyes.

Barbara looked frantically over at Lynley who looked as lost as she felt.

Again, Mr Reid saved them from saying anything. "I asked around about you two." He opened his eyes and looked at them both, one after the other. "I know you usually get whoever did it, I just," He paused again.

Lynley stood. "Mr Reid, I've know you've said this yourself before, but we will contact you if there are any developments." His voice was gentle as he said it though and Mr Reid looked at him for a long moment then nodded.

"I'll get out your hair then," Mr Reid nodded to them both and walked out, looking almost broken by the events of the last few days.

Barbara watched Mr Reid leave and sighed as she dropped into a seat. They were quiet for a minute as they thought about his visit.

Barbara remembered what she originally came in for and spoke.

"Apart from the drop of blood we found, and the couple of fibres, SOCO found another couple of drops of blood in the kitchen. There were fingerprints on the jewellery box and on some of the furniture but it looks like they wore gloves so it's going to be difficult to get anything."

"Are they going to compare the DNA in the blood against Adam's?" Lynley stood and started pacing around his desk.

"They're going to run it through the system but since he's not actually in the system, they can’t until we get a warrant."

"Damn."

"I know. The results should be back tomorrow morning so if we can get anything substantial on him then they can go ahead."

Lynley sat down beside her and sighed. "We just need to think this through again."

Barbara sighed as well but they we're obviously missing something so she went along with him. "We know Jessica wasn't attacked in the park, and the attack was far too violent for a mugging, and also, why would a mugger that desperate take the time to shift her to the park?"

Lynley nodded. "And the forensics on her belongings found with her just show smudges, or generic fibres and shoeprints."

"So if it wasn't a mugging, and there have been no other attacks like it, then it seems personal."

"The only problem is, she didn't seem to have any personal problems, aside from Adam. She didn’t even leave herself any notes, or look up anything out of the ordinary."

"No, but SOCO are looking over her flat just now."

Lynley looked surprised.

Barbara shrugged slightly. "I asked when I was on the phone."

He nodded again. "Okay, it appears the attack happened in her flat, given that we've had no other reports and CCTV hasn't shown anything in the surrounding area, but we'll need to wait to SOCO gets back to us to confirm that."

"Usually when it's personal, it's someone close, especially since she didn’t have any obvious problems."

"The most obvious person being Adam."

"Yeah but lets ignore him for the moment." Barbara said. "We've got nothing apart from him being the obvious."

"Okay. That brings us to the break in at Mr Andrews though. The burglar clearly didn't know what they were looking for and was rather inexperienced."

"He was also pushed." Barbara lifted up Lafferty's file on Mr Andrews. "Two hands, suggesting it was deliberate rather than accidental."

Lynley looked rather surprised to find the report. "Lafferty must have dropped it off this morning."

Barbara smiled. "He didn't find anything else other than the paint chips but he has definitely ruled it as suspicious."

"All right, so the burglary reads wrong and he was pushed deliberately rather than accidently from the top of the stairs." Lynley paused for thought. "It definitely reads as a murder someone has tried to cover up."

"The question is why? There've been no other attacks in the area and no mention of trouble at all." She shifted in her seat. "The only reason that I can think of is that it's related to the attack on Jessica. If she was attacked at her flat then whoever did it must have thought Mr Andrews saw something."

"Not realising he wasn't in that evening."

"Then of course, there is Mrs Morrison, who saw someone arrive at Jessica's who sounds like Adam."

"It's not enough though. When you checked with her friends again, did they mention any male friends that match the description?"

"No, I don’t think so." Barbara flipped back in her notes. She shook her head. "No, most of her circle were women, but none of the men match the description."

She slouched back in her chair. "And Adam was definitely lying to us,"

"But unfortunately we can't use our gut instinct as evidence in court."

She snorted. "If only."

He smiled weakly and she was forced to admit defeat. "I can't think of anything we've missed."

Lynley sat back as well. "No, neither can I." He picked up her notes and looked through them again, silence falling as they both tried to find something they had missed.

Lynley gave up first, throwing the report he was reading down onto his desk and running his hands through his hair. "I think that's about all we can do for tonight. We'll need to wait for some of the forensics from Jessica's flat before we can do anything else."

Barbara sighed as she put down her notes. "Yeah." They sat quietly for a minute, lost in their own thoughts before she was jarred out of hers by a phone ringing down the corridor.

She stood, gathered her notes and reports and turned to face him, only to discover he had moved. He was standing, well, sitting behind her on the edge of his desk, legs splayed out in her direction and crossed at the ankles.

He looked as if he had managed to put the frustration aside for now and was smiling softly at her.

She couldn’t help but smile back.

"I'll see you in the morning?" He asked despite the redundancy of it. He reached out, and she took a step forward, his fingers lightly touching the curve of her waist and she melted just a little, despite trying not to.

"Yeah." Her voice was a whisper and his smile widened.

"Goodnight then."

"Goodnight."

He pulled his hand away, catching two of her fingers with his and gently squeezing before bringing his hand back to his side.

Her smile grew and he turned back to gather his things and she left, smile still on her face, this morning's panic a million miles away from her thoughts.

~~

 _Friday 16th August_

It took Barbara a minute to blink away sleep and realise that the ringing sound was her phone. She muttered under her breath, stopping cold when she saw it was Lynley phoning her. Phone calls at, she squinted at her clock, three am were never good news.

She was right.

"Barbara, I'll pick you up in ten minutes, we've had another attack."

He didn't say anything else so she dashed about her flat, rummaging to find some clean clothes, putting the kettle on and letting the tea stew whilst she ran into the shower.

Ten minutes later he was right on time, and she was slightly more awake when she got into the car, flask of tea in her hand.

"What exactly happened?" she asked as he sped through the relatively streets.

"A pair of clubbers found a badly beaten pregnant woman on their way home."

"Shit."

"She was taken to hospital but she hasn't woken up yet. Last thing I heard was that they weren't sure if she would need surgery or not."

"Anything else?"

Lynley shook his head. "I only got the bare minimum so we're heading to the hospital to see what the doctors are saying."

~~

They made their way back up to the maternity wing, Barbara less worried about Lynley this time as he had seemingly gone past the angst straight to anger.

They stood at the nurses station until one of the doctors was free.

"It's not as bad as it looks at first glance. The baby is fine, a little distressed but that is to be expected so we'll keep an eye on that."

"And the mother?"

"We're rather concerned at the moment. She's still unconscious but from her reactions it appears more she has been drugged than concussed."

"Drugged?" They both asked at the same time.

"Yes, her reactions seem more like she is sleeping. We've taken blood and rushed it to the labs to see what she's been given."

"Will she be alright?" Barbara asked.

The doctor sighed. "I'm afraid we simply don’t know. We don’t now when she was drugged or what with. Both heartbeats are strong for the minute though and it appears to be some sort of sedative so we're got our fingers crossed."

Lynley looked up. "We'll need to get someone to photograph her injuries."

The doctor nodded. "Well they are stable for the moment so that should be," He was cut off though by a commotion down the corridor.

A wild eyed man, followed quickly by a uniformed officer ran down the corridor. He ground to a halt outside the room window and let out a sob.

Lynley spoke first. "Sir?"

The man turned to the doctor, "That's my wife, what happened?"

Lynley answered. "She was attacked, Mr…?"

"John Johnston, is she going to be alright?" John turned to ask the doctor and Barbara and Lynley slipped back to talk to the officer who had brought him up.

"What do you know?"

"Name's Susan Johnston. She had her bag and phone still with her and the phone was constantly ringing. We answered it and Mr Johnston picked up. Him and his brother have been searching for her since about ten. The details he gave checked out with the driver's license in the purse so while my partner stayed with the witnesses, I went around and picked Mr Johnston up."

"Has he said anything so far?"

The officer shook his head. "No, he was far too upset to say much but I got the impression she was supposed to be back by around nine thirty and he'd been getting worried since then."

Barbara jotted that down. "Are the witnesses still there?"

The uniform paused and Barbara coaxed.

"There was an all night café nearby so they took them there, but they were quite drunk so I don’t think you'll get much more out of them."

"What did you manage to get out of them?"

"They were coming home from a night out, one of them stumbled into the alley and they found her. There was no one else around so they phoned 999."

"Nothing else at all?"

He shook his head. "No but we noticed a camera outside the alleyway entrance so that might be more helpful."

"Okay, thanks," Barbara put her notebook away and let him leave. They turned back to the doctor and Mr Johnston. They were still talking so they waited until Mr Johnston was ushered into the room.

The doctor pre-empted them. "He's still quite upset so I would leave him a bit longer." Lynley nodded and they moved away, heading towards the empty day lounge. They put on one of the corner lamps on and sat wearily down on the plastic covered chairs to wait.

Barbara dropped her shoulders and rubbed her eyes with her hands before resting her head on them. Beside her, she could hear Lynley try to cover a yawn. They sat there for a while, trying not to fall asleep again and eventually Lynley went off to talk to one of the nurses about getting a cup of tea.

He came back and handed her a cup of what looked to be the weakest tea she'd ever seen. She tasted it and found she was right.

Lynley smiled weakly at her. "I'm no good at making tea at this time of the morning."

She let out a soft chuckle and drank the tea anyway.

She stood and stretched once she finished and Lynley stood as well and it was back to work.

Mr Johnston seemed calmer when they walked into the room and he looked up and nodded a greeting.

Barbara leaned back against the wall, taking notes and letting Lynley do the talking.

"I understand your wife wasn't due back to half past nine last night?"

Mr Johnston shook his head. "She's been talking Italian lessons, they finish at nine and she's usually home before half nine." He clasped Susan's hand in his.

"Where is she having the lessons?"

"The Italian Cultural Institute. She only started last month."

Lynley let him wipe away a tear before he carried on. "Has she been having any problems lately or anyone you know who had a grudge?"

Mr Johnston shook his head again. "She never said anything and she wasn't acting any differently." He fell silent until he let out a small sob.

Lynley waited another minute, then looked at Barbara.

She nodded in answer to his unasked question, flipped her notebook shut and pushed herself off the wall.

"We'll leave you for the moment, Mr Johnston."

Mr Johnston nodded distractedly in response to Lynley's words.

They left the room and headed back towards the car. "We'll interview him again later today when he's a bit more composed."

Barbara nodded distractedly. "We'll need to look up the Italian Cultural Centre,"

"Institute."

"Okay, institute, and see if she was attacked on her way home."

Lynley nodded in response.

~~

Their part of the station was practically deserted when they got in and it gave them full range of the small kitchen area. They were too tired to say much but the silence was comfortable as they flitted about each other, grabbing tea and the remains of a packet of digestives.

The main office was rather eerie so they unconsciously retreated to his office, fingers curled around their mugs as they sat opposite each other.

He started first. "Well, if her husband wasn't aware of any problems, then it seems less likely to be personal."

"Her bag was still there and she was drugged which throws a mugging out as well." Barbara sighed into her tea. "D'you think we've got an attacker who's targeting pregnant women on our hands?"

Lynley took a sip of his tea as he pondered. "It feels different but it's possible."

"Well it's going to have to make us consider someone else than Adam anyway." She sighed again, feeling crap.

He picked up on it. "What's wrong?"

"I just can’t help but feel this is our fault. I mean, the case is going nowhere and we tried to provoke our only suspect last night."

"You think it's related?"

"It just seems like too much of a coincidence. Besides, we were struggling and now we've got brand new leads handed to us on a plate."

Lynley slumped in his chair. "I know what you mean."

He looked as washed out as she felt. "But we don’t know if they are connected yet so why don’t we hold off blaming ourselves until then?"

She snorted. "I doubt you'll have any better luck than I will at that."

He smiled sadly. "Probably."

They fell quiet again, tiredness starting to creep in.

"I'll put a request in for the footage, see if that helps us make any more sense." Barbara was desperately trying to keep herself awake.

Lynley nodded in agreement and she phoned, getting straight through at this time of the morning.

When she hung up, he sighed again and looked at his watch. "It's going to be a while before anything comes in, why don’t you head back and get a couple of hours sleep?"

Barbara stared at him. "And what are you planning to do?"

He opened his mouth to retort, then shut it.

"Exactly, come on, your place is closer."

He looked faintly surprised.

"I can cope better with your couch than you can with mine"

He smiled softly. "True." He moved quickly after that and soon they were driving through the streets that were just starting to get busy, dawn just around the corner, colouring the sky in pinks and oranges.

~~

She glanced at the clock when she woke, surprised to find she'd managed nearly two and a half hours of sleep. She'd just popped bread in the toaster when he wandered into the kitchen.

"Morning."

"Morning." His voice was rough from sleep and his hair was stinking up in all directions.

It was utterly adorable but the sight made her run her hand through her own hair.

The kettle clicked off and he settled himself making another pot of tea.

"D'you think there is such a thing as too much tea?"

He chuckled softly. "I'm sure someone would have noticed before now if there was."

She nodded and turned her attention back to the toaster, which had just popped.

She grabbed the jam out the cupboard, and slid it and the toast along the counter to him. He spread it while she put her own bread in. She leaned back against the counter and watched him, idly wondering if she should say or do anything else. She must have been staring because he turned to look at her enquiringly. She shook the question off and went to pour the tea.

~~

Not much else had come in by the time they made it back, although she bothered the hospital lab just in case. Blood tests were still running. The phone call to SOCO had more results and she nipped down and got the photos of Susan's injuries as well as the preliminary results from Jessica's flat.

They started with Susan's photos and she spread them out over Lynley's desk. They both stared at them.

The silence was becoming painful and Lynley didn’t notice when she moved around his desk to stand beside him.

"What are you seeing?"

He looked startled. "Nothing, unfortunately" He looked at her. "I'm fine." He sighed.

She held her hands up in surrender as she moved back to her chair. "I just don’t want to have to go to all the bother of breaking a new DI in, that's all."

That had her desired effect. Lynley snorted lightly and they carried on like nothing had happened.

"The bruising isn't as bad as Jessica's." Barbara said and his head shot up.

"I knew there was something different, I just couldn’t put my finger in it." He stared some more.

"No, it's definitely not as bad, and it's not as widespread," He rearranged the pictures, pulling Jessica's from his desk and laying them side by side. "You can see here, Jessica's bruising is all over her body, but Susan's, it's mainly her arms and shoulders, all areas away from the baby."

Barbara agreed and compared the head shots. "Even the head wounds are different. Susan's is no where near as deep as Jessica's." She stared again, "It's like whoever did it was trying not to hurt either of them too much."

"Aside from knocking her out and drugging her."

"Yeah, but it's not as vicious as the attack on Jessica."

"I know, what you mean, Barbara," He said sharply. He closed his eyes, opened them as he apologised. "Sorry."

She shrugged it off and they sat back, looking at each other rather than the photos.

"It seems too different to be the same attacker."

"But is it coincidence or copycat? Or,"

"Trying to put us off the right track." Barbara groaned. "We need to see the CCTV and find out what she was drugged with before we can narrow anything down."

"Any word on when the footage would be here?"

Barbara shook her head, "They said it would take a couple of hours to process,"

Lynley grunted. "So any time now until forever then."

"Look, I'll go and see about then, bother the lab,"

"I'll start going through her phone and diary see if she had anything in common with Jessica."

~~

She returned shortly, triumphant and with the discs in hand. "Sometimes I think they just like the attention. Any luck?"

Lynley shook his head. "I've only been through the phone so far though."

She settled down in her chair as she started the footage, starting from when Susan's class finished just in case she missed anything. She sat up straighter when Susan came onscreen at 9.21pm and Lynley looked up.

"Find anything?"

"Just getting to it now."

Lynley joined her around her side of the desk and they both watched as Susan passed the alley entrance, looking to the side as if she saw something and then there was a blur of movement from behind her, black against the dark stone walls and Susan was pushed in to the alleyway. The last the camera caught of her was a flash of her face as she pushed further back.

"Fuck!"

Barbara threw the handset down in a fit of anger and Lynley looked like he would do the same.

She sat down, tried to take a few calming breaths but had no luck.

Beside her, Lynley tried to compose himself as well. He reached out a hand, brushed her arm lightly. "We'll find something else."

She turned to face him and gave in. "Okay." She took another deep breath. "So we know she won’t be able to identity whoever did it when she wakes up but maybe she'll remember something."

Lynley rewound the tape. "Perhaps we can catch something." He played it again, slower and they watched again, the black streak proving to be someone in black, a hood obscuring most of their face. There were no obvious reflections nearby and Lynley rewound it again before she said anything.

He played it slower, whoever it it was looked to be following Susan and Barbara put a different disc in. The time stamp was just before and they caught Susan again, the same figure following her again.

Again with the next disc.

The figure looked like it was wearing the same hoodie as the figure who carried Jessica into the park and given Susan was being followed, there really was only one conclusion.

"She was targeted."

"It looks that way."

Barbara slumped back into her seat and rubbed her face with her hands in frustration. "So does this mean we have a serial attacker on our hands despite how different it is?

Lynley slumped as well. "Or is it a copy cat or someone trying to cover up their tracks?" He shook his head. "We need to know more."

"It's too early to interview any of her friends yet and her husband didn't think there was any problems." Barbara fidgeted in her seat.

Lynley picked up Susan's blackberry and started going through it. She watched him for a minute, tired enough that she didn’t look away in time when he looked up at her, aware of what she was doing.

She could feel herself start to blush as a soft smile graced his face and she buried her nose in reading one of the files, even though she didn’t take a word of it in. She could feel his gaze linger for another minute before he looked back down at the blackberry.

She slowly calmed and she forced herself to read the file itself. It was SOCO's preliminary on Jessica's flat and stated the spill beside the coffee table was in fact blood. They hadn’t had time to analyse it yet, but the corner of the table was consistant with the wound on Jessica's head.

Nothing conclusive but it definitely perked her up. She was just about to tell Lynley when he perked up slightly himself.

"What?"

"Susan's GP is Adam Wilkinson."

"What?" Barbara perked up as well and Lynley showed her the entry on Susan's blackberry. She smiled. "When was her last appointment?"

"Four weeks ago." Lynley frowned and they both looked dejected.

"It's purely circumstantial though." Barbara said what they were both thinking.

"But it's proof they are connected, that Adam knew both of them."

"Lot of good that's going to do us." She sighed "However, SOCO have confirmed blood at Jessica's flat and her head wound matched the table."

"Definitely?" He look almost excited and she hated to burst his bubble.

"Not yet but they are still working in them" She looked at her watch. "D'you think the lab results will be back yet?"

"We'll see." Lynley picked up the phone and Barbara scrolled though the Blackberry some more as she waited.

He put the phone down and she looked up hopefully.

He shook his head. "They'd like to remind us that despite the fact they are rushing the results, they are not miracle workers. We've to phone back in half an hour."

Barbara nodded. "All right."

~~

They got the paperwork organised, started their interview lists and Lynley phoned back the lab half an hour later.

She watched as Lynley rolled his eyes at something they said on the phone then his face turned serious as they got the results.

He put the phone down.

"Chloral hydrate, which is a prescribed sedative. The estimated dose in her system is a little above the prescribed dose, especially for a pregnant woman."

"Will they be all right?"

"The lab says that if they have survived this far, a one of dose should have no lasting harmful effect, although the baby will be monitored more closely than normal for the rest of the pregnancy."

Barbara relaxed. "Thank God,"

Lynley nodded his agreement and picked up the phone again. "We need to double check Susan wasn't prescribed it. I'll check with the husband if you try the surgery."

She went to her desk to use her own phone and checked her watch. The surgery should just be open. It took her four attempts to get through, the rhythm of her pen tapping on the desk getting faster and faster as she kept redialling.

She got through and the receptionist sounded a little harassed.

"It's DS Havers from the Met. I think we spoke to one of your colleagues the other day?"

"Ah yes, unfortunately Dr Wilkinson isn't in for you to bother yet,"

Barbara bit her lip to stop the retort that sprung to mind. "I'm not phoning about that actually. One of his patients was attacked last night,"

"Oh,"

"I just want to check on a prescription,"

"I'm not sure I can give out that information,"

"We know that a drug was in her system, we just want to check if she was prescribed it or not."

There was a pause on the phone and Barbara could hear chatter on the other end. She started tapping again.

It picked up again. "We can do that. What was the drug?"

Barbara looked down at her notes. "Chloral Hydrate."

She could hear the clack of keyboard keys.

"Yes, Dr Wilkinson prescribed her yesterday. Two standard doses."

"All right, thank you," She paused, thought for a second. "When was her appointment with him?"

The receptionist paused and the typing died away.

"That's strange," Barbara could make out a murmur on the other end. "Excuse me a minute, Sergeant."

Barbara heard the phone being place on the desk and there was more chatter in the background. She couldn’t make it out though and she could feel herself start to fidget.

Lynley popped his head round the office door and he looked enquiringly at her. She held up a hand to stall him a bit and he nodded and disappeared back to his office.

She jumped as the receptionist cam back on. "I'm sorry Sergeant but we don’t have a record of the appointment. It's entirely possible she was just slipped in on short notice." She sounded unsure of this though.

Barbara was just about to ask how when she was interrupted. "Not all of us are in today so we can't confirm it but I can’t imagine it would be otherwise. It's not the sort of drug that would be prescribed without seeing the patient in person, especially a pregnant one."

"And it was definitely Dr Wilkinson that prescribed it?"

"It was printed from his ID log in and we are very careful about those sort of things so yes."

"All right, thank you for your time. One more thing?"

"Yes, Sergeant?"

"Don't talk about this to anyone else. And that applies to all the rest of the staff."

There was a tart silence that made Barbara glad she was only on the other end of the phone, not actually in front of the woman.

"Understood. Is that all?"

"Yes."

"Goodbye," and she hung up.

Barbara blew out a breath and smiled. It finally felt like they were getting somewhere although she tried to repress the feeling until she spoke with Lynley. She nabbed Jones on her way, and got him to look up prescriptions.

She sat down in her chair in Lynley's office and let him speak first.

"Susan's husband said she wasn't prescribed with anything he knew of, and she didn’t mention anything about a doctor's appointment. Also, he was thinking a bit more clearly and definitely didn't remember Susan having any problems."

"How is she?"

"She's starting to wake up but is still incredibly groggy. It's going to be at least an hour or so before we can talk to her. Both she and the baby's signs are good though." He looked more relaxed as he said this.

"How did you get on?"

Barbara smiled widely, letting herself feel hopeful now they had ruled out Susan getting her own prescription.

"Susan was prescribed two standard does of the drug yesterday afternoon by Dr Wilkinson but there is no record of an appointment."

Lynley raised an eyebrow. "None at all?"

"Nope, though the receptionist said she could have been sneaked in but not everyone was in today."

"Can we confirm that?"

Barbara shook her head.

"No but she sounded very unsure when she said that. According to her, it's not the sort of thing that’s given out without an appointment."

Lynley looked thoughtful.

"We need to know who picked it up."

"Already on it. Got Jones looking up where it was filled."

Lynley shifted in his chair and looked as if he was trying not to get his hopes up.

"We really need to know who picked it up before we can bring Adam in and get a court order for DNA. There is still a slim possibility it wasn't him."

Barbara nodded. "I'll double check with Susan's friends then give Jones a hand."

Lynley nodded and looked back down at his pile of paperwork.

She sat back at her desk, checking the time and managed to catch a couple of Susan's friends and her instructor at the Italian Institute.

They all confirmed Susan hadn't said anything out of the ordinary, no problems and her instructor said she left on the dot of time in high spirits.

Just when she was starting to get antsy, Jones hit paydirt.

"Ma'am, I've found the pharmacy where the prescription was filled."

"Brilliant, where about?"

"The Lloyds on King's Road. I spoke to the chemist, he remembered it was a man that picked it up."

Barbara smiled. "Thanks," Jones smiled back and walked off.

She printed off a photograph of Adam, and grabbed her bag before heading towards Lynley's office.

"Got the pharmacy and better yet, it was a man that picked it up."

"We can stop by there on the way back from the hospital."

~~

She drove this time and ended up circling the hospital car park trying to find a space, it being the first of the days visiting hours. They made it in to find Susan sitting up in bed, looking slightly sleepy still but mainly okay.

Susan winced slightly from the bruising when she shifted to talk to them.

"Do you remember what happened at all?"

Susan nodded. "I was walking home, I kept looking behind me because I felt like someone was following. I just put it down to being a bit over nervous though." Susan paused, taking a sip of water and a deep breath to waken herself up a little more.

John squeezed her hand and Susan carried on.

"I past a lane and the next thing I remember was someone pushing me into it. I felt something hit the back of my head," she took a deep breath, "then I remember getting dizzy, the pain was," She had to pause again.

"I remember they made me drink something, my head was spinning and his hand was on my nose and I couldn’t breath," Susan got a little upset and they let her calm for a minute, looking out the window while she hugged John.

They heard a cough and they turned around to face her again.

"After that, the next thing I knew, I was waking up here."

"His hand? It was a man?" Lynley asked.

Susan nodded. "He held me against him, it was definitely a man."

"Did you get a look at his face at all?"

Susan shook her head. "No, he stayed behind me all the time."

"Okay," Lynley nodded reassuringly at Susan. He let her calm for another minute. "Did you go and see your GP yesterday?"

Susan shook her head.

"And you haven't been prescribed any sedatives lately?"

Susan shook her head again." No, why?"

Lynley smiled. "We're just eliminating a few things." He stood and they could see Susan was getting sleepy. "We'll leave you be for now."

Lynley was halfway out the door when Barbara spoke to John.

"Could we have a sample of your signature please?" John looked confused.

"We just need to,"

"Eliminate a few things." John nodded and dutifully signed the bit paper Barbara held out.

~~

The pharmacist Jones had spoken to earlier was still there, and he ushered them through the back to the ridiculously small staff room.

"Ah yes, as I told your colleague, I remember the gentleman. We've got questions to ask when we dispense these sort of things and he shrugged them off saying he was a GP so of course he knew."

"But you asked anyway?" Barbara spoke.

"Of course, I didn't recognise him so he could have been anybody."

"Was this him?" Barbara held out the picture of Adam.

"Yes."

"Are you absolutely sure?" Lynley spoke up.

"Yes, the girls would recognise him as well since he came in just as we were about to close for the evening."

"Did he say anything when he picked it up?" Barbara took over again.

"He said the prescription was for his wife, and he had signed the back of it."

"Do you still have the prescription?"

He nodded. "Yes, we keep them for a week until our paperwork is sorted, then they are shredded." He stood. "If you just wait here,"

They nodded and he went thought to the front. He returned quickly with the prescription in hand. "I hope you don't mind but I took a photocopy so we can mange our paperwork."

Lynley spoke. "That's understandable. Thank you for your time."

They managed to wait until they were sitting in the car before they compared the signatures.

Lynley held the prescription whilst Barbara got the piece of paper John had signed earlier out her bag. They held them side by side and they both burst out in a grin.

"I'm not expert, but those don’t even look remotely the same." Lynley looked incredibly pleased and it was true, John's signature was rather large and loopy, whilst the signature on the prescription was tight and small.

Barbara started the car. "Time to bring him in?" she asked.

Lynley was still grinning. "Most definitely."

As she made the way to the health centre, Lynley phoned the station and started the process for the arrest warrant. He got off the phone just as they arrived.

The receptionist from the phone call this morning recognised Barbara and looked pale when they stated Adam wouldn’t be seeing anyone else that day.

"But surely not,"

"You'll need to arrange something else for the rest of his appointments." Lynley tone left no room for doubt.

They waited outside his door until the patient already in came out and slipped in before the door had a chance to shut.

Adam looked up at them and froze. He started to look panicked as Lynley started giving the caution and Lynley struggled to finish it as Adam began protesting his innocence loudly. Handcuffed and finally finishing the caution, they led him out to the car.

~~

They deposited him in one of the interview rooms while they waited on his solicitor to arrive and took advantage of the break to grab a quick bit to eat and plan their strategy.

Back in the interview room, Barbara set down a lukewarm cup of tea and a sandwich from one of the vending machines down in front of Adam.

He looked at it disdainfully, the time on his own having given him the confidence to convince himself this was a mistake, that he could wriggle out of it.

It only made her feel better that they would bring him down.

Lynley sat down silently, placing a headshot of Jessica and Susan down on the desk. He pushed them towards Adam.

Adam paled slightly but made no other reaction. His lawyer objected.

"What is the point in this, Lynley?"

Lynley ignored him and asked Adam, "Where were you last night between eight thirty and ten pm?"

"I was at home."

"With your wife?"

"No, she was at her book group."

"So you have no alibi?"

"I don’t need one!"

"What about Sunday night?"

"I told you I was running in the park! How could you possibly think I had something to do with Jessica's attack!" Adam tried to play the innocent victim, but his expressions and tone of voice were a little off.

"Very easily, Adam."

Lynley nodded to Barbara and she slid the prescription out of her file and put it on the table beside the pictures of Jessica and Susan.

Adam looked at it and Barbara could see the widening of his eyes, the slight gasp of breath. That revealed his shock. He tried to cover it up.

"A prescription? I write them all the time."

"But how many times do you not see the patient?" Barbara asked.

"If it's a repeat then often not unless it's necessary."

"What about sedatives for pregnant patients?" she asked again. "I'm thought you had to be very careful about those."

The lawyer butted in. "My client may have made a mistake with a prescription but that's no reason to arrest him for murder and assault."

Lynley smiled insincerely. "The prescription is merely the start of it. Not only did your client write the prescription, he also had it filled, pretending to be the victim's husband."

"You must be mistaken!" Adam was adamant but Barbara could see the panic start to set in. She was rather surprised, given the run around he had given them all week, she had suspected it would take longer to get to this point.

She wasn't going to complain though.

Lynley saw this as well and carried on. "What would your wife think about you drugging a pregnant woman?"

Adam clammed shut, his eyes open wide and he didn’t say a word. His lawyer on the other hand, did.

"This is outrageous, if you aren't going to charge my client, we are leaving." He stood but Adam stayed stock still.

"You might want to sit down again, we're just getting to the good bit." Barbara said to the lawyer.

"Mrs Johnston woke up. We had an interesting conversation." She said and she could see the terror in Adam's eyes.

Lynley took over. "I wonder, what would your wife say about everything. I mean we saw how scared you were that she found out about you and Jessica, didn't we Sergeant?" He turned to Barbara and smiled wolfishly.

"Terrified out of his wits, Sir," She smirked back at Lynley and as one they turned to face Adam.

She wasn't afraid to admit the surge of satisfaction that filled her at the look of sheer terror on Adam's face. It was almost worth the last few days of frustrations and worry.

She tried to reign herself in from getting too far ahead of herself.

"So what would she say about you cheating, becoming a father, killing three people and endangering two others? I mean that's a heck of a violation of the Hippocratic Oath." She looked expectantly at him as if expecting an answer.

The lawyer kicked up a fuss again. "This is police intimidation. If you have no proof with which to charge my client, then we are leaving."

It was the lawyers turn to look expectant and Adam started to look relieved, as if he was going to get off if his lawyer took him out.

Naturally this was the point at which Lynley spoke.

"Your client was seen entering Jessica's flat approximately an hour before her death. We have forensics that prove she was initially attacked there, forensics that show your client was in Mr Andrew's house, proof you falsified a prescription, filled it and then drugged Mrs Johnston."

"But no proof that my client killed Jessica, which seems to be the basis of the murder allegations. We'll admit to the prescription fraud but that was a moment of weakness."

Lynley smiled, looking unconcerned but he was holding himself upright enough that Barbara could tell he was getting on edge.

"Your clients DNA is now being entered into our database." He paused and looked directly at Adam. "What are the odd's it'll match the hair and blood found in Jessica's and Mr Andrews' homes?"

The lawyer said nothing to that, just looked at Adam, who was no looking down at a graze on the side of his hand. The lawyer saw this and Barbara saw the sense of defeat seep into him.

The lawyer turned to face them. "I'll need some time to confer with my client."

Barbara and Lynley exchanged a nod, then rose.

They moved into the other side of the observation room, the sound off to protect legal privilege but they could see them both through the mirror.

Barbara was tapping the tabletop with her fingers, fidgeting, made worse by the fact Lynley was doing the same against the wall.

"I don't want to think we've got him just yet in case the lawyer persuades him to say something else."

"We'll we've got DNA for comparison now so it," He paused. "Actually I'm not going to risk jinxing it just yet."

Barbara smiled at him and forced herself to stop fidgeting. They spent five minutes looking through the mirror, Adam and his lawyer angled away so neither could see what they were saying.

"We have got him though, haven’t we?" Barbara could feel the doubts stating to gather as they had to wait.

"Forensics will be back in the next few days and he knows he's caught. The only thing left is if he actually admits to it. We've got enough to hold him with Susan's attack anyway."

Barbara blew out a breath and nodded. "Yeah." She started tapping again, only stopping when Lynley's hand landed over hers.

"You're making me worse." He smiled softly but left his hand there.

She smiled lopsidedly at him. "Sorry." She didn’t fidget again, mainly because instead of feeling anxious about the case, she felt it about Lynley instead. She tried not to think of him as Tommy just now because they were so close to the edge of the case and she would never forgive herself if she lapsed now and spaced out.

She didn’t have much time to worry about that though as the lawyer stood and walked out of the room. There was a knock on the door and the lawyer entered.

"We're ready now." He didn’t look happy and Barbara took that as a good sign.

They walked back into the room and Barbara noticed Adam was red eyed. She looked briefly to Lynley and felt that surge of success flow though her again.

"All right. I did it, I did it all." Adam shut his eyes, wringing his hands together and looking completely broken.

Barbara could feel herself relax, joy and relief spreading through her even as she began to take the official statement.

"All right, Adam, let’s start from the very beginning. You went round to see Jessica."

Adam nodded and opened his eyes. But the lawyer spoke. "I'd like to say my client is in an extreme emotional state and has been for the last week."

"Why don’t you save that for court? We just need to take a statement at the moment."

The lawyer nodded reluctantly and let Adam speak.

"I'd tried to contact her after she found out but she wouldn't answer at all so when she texted I rushed round."

"And she told you about the baby."

"She didn’t need to. Her bump was starting to show and I was just a little gobsmacked. She said she didn't care if I was a bastard or not, I deserved to know about the baby. I was shocked, I," he paused, "I asked her if it was mine. I could see my marriage going down the pan and despite the fact she was talking to me, Jessica wouldn’t have anything to do with me. So I argued and she shouted Of course it's yours, I'm not a cheating scumbag like you," He wrung his hands, not looking at either of them as he relived the memory.

"I said well then she wasn't going to get any maintenance and I didn’t want to know," They could see a tear slip down Adam's face. "She shouted back that was fine then, she just would just tell the baby I was dead when it asked and I got angry and I pushed her. She pushed back and tried to get me to leave but I pushed on more time and she," He hadn’t paused for breath and Barbara rushed to get all this down even as she felt sick at the description of what happened. She daren't look at Lynley in case she lost it altogether.

"She fell against the corner of the table and there was blood all over it and her hair and the floor. I couldn't feel a pulse and I felt sick. I panicked. I cleaned the blood up as best I could and then I sat and thought how I could make it go away." It was all coming out in a stream of consciousness now.

"I thought if I made it look like a mugging then it would be less suspicious. I had a drink then I," he was wringing his hands so much Barbara though they were going to start bleeding. "I started hitting her and kicking her."

"Then what?" Barbara was glad Lynley asked because she wasn't sure she could find her voice, even if his voice was ice cold and deadly.

"I thought I'd bruised her enough so I put her in the car and grabbed her bag. I drove around till I found a quiet park and put her in the bushes. I wiped her bag down and scattered her things around the park."

"And then?"

"I went home. Told Lucy I'd been out running, met someone I went to university with. I thought it would just be thought of as a mugging, that no one would connect me." Adam looked directly at them.

"Then you came into my office and started asking questions. You said someone knew I was going around and that just kept going round and round my head. I panicked. I thought her neighbour had seen me and I thought I would lose everything. So I," He took a sip of the now cold tea, "I went around and broke in though the back door of his house. I didn't realise I scraped through the gloves." He fingered the scratch on his hand, "Not until afterwards anyway, and I thought I had made it look enough like a burglary that it might get over looked, especially since my DNA wasn't in the system."

"What exactly did you do after you broke in?"

"I started messing up his living room, enough to make a noise then I started up the stairs. He had come to investigate and it was just so, so easy to slip past him and push. I remember he tried to grab the banister." Adam looked lost again. "It just seemed so easy and I messed up the living room a little more, grabbed some jewellery and left."

"What did you tell your wife?"

"She was asleep, didn't realise I'd gone out, I just told her I couldn’t sleep when she asked why I got up in the night."

"I couldn't believe I'd done it, I was just kind of numb after wards." Adam looked up at them both again. "I ehm, I got drunk, wasn't my best that day."

"And then you interviewed me again. You still didn’t believe it was a burglary and I'd killed him for nothing."

"So you panicked again?"

Adam nodded. "I thought I'd try something else, make it look like a serial attacker. I picked a patient at random and made a prescription. I didn’t want to actually hurt her, not with the baby so I picked something that we sometimes prescribe that would sedate her for a while but not be too harmful. I phoned Lucy, told her that the same university friend wanted to meet up for dinner then we would go for a run. Afterwards when she asked if I was okay, I just told her I'd ran too much too fast. Is she, are they all right? I mean if she's been talking to you?"

"They are both alive if that's what you mean. It remains to be seen if the baby will be all right." Lynley was just as cold as before and Adam looked like he would cry at the tone.

"I tried to be careful, I just hit her a little."

"A little is all it takes. Tell us how you found her first of all."

"I knew where she lived and I followed her. I managed to stay hidden and I waited for her to come out. When she passed the lane I hit her with a bag of change, enough to make her a bit dizzy. I held her, pinched her nose and made her drink the drug."

"Once she started to struggle a little I gripped her arms tightly until the drug started to work and I hit her arms and slapped her. I moved her a couple of blocks away so that she wouldn't be found immediately if anyone came looking for her but close enough to the main street that someone walking by would spot her."

"And at the pharmacy?"

"That was easy, I had signed it and pretended to be her husband. I thought I'd gone far enough out not to be found so easily."

Adam slumped slightly and shut his eyes as he finished talking.

Barbara and Lynley exchanged another look.

"All right, we'll get the paperwork sorted."

They rose and left the room. Lynley grabbed a uniform and directed him to get Adam organised.

They ended up sitting in his office, cup of tea and biscuit in hand as they slumped.

They didn’t talk as they drank but Barbara could feel the euphoria of actually getting him slip away as the whole case came rushing back.

Lynley must have seen the change in her mood.

"Just remember, we got him, Barbara."

She looked closely at him and could see the tension in him as well.

"So should you."

He smiled softly and looked down at is tea.

"I just can’t help but think we got lucky. If he hadn’t attacked Susan, we wouldn't have been able to get him."

"I know," Barbara closed her eyes. "But she and they baby are all right, that's the main thing."

"Yes," she heard him sigh.

She opened her eyes to find him pinching his nose.

They were both tired, the case had got to them a while back, and it was showing.

"Go home."

He looked up at her.

"We're both shattered and the paperwork can wait."

He looked about to argue so she rolled her eyes.

"Well I can’t have you falling asleep on me when we go out for dinner."

It took a moment for her words to sink in she could see, but when they did a slow smile spread across his face.

"No you can’t, can you."

She returned the smile and she felt better at the prospect, even if not completely. She saw him tidy up a bundle of paperwork and knew he was going to take it home with him. She didn't say anything because short of going home with him and getting into a shouting match with him, which she really wasn't ready for yet, there was nothing she could do. Satisfied that he would at least get some sleep and she could distract him tomorrow, though she tried no to think about that too much, she left him to it.

~~

 _Saturday 17th August_

She woke on early Saturday morning and took advantage of her day off and immediately rolled over and fell asleep again. When she woke again somewhat later, it was to a text message from Tommy.

 _I'll pick u up 4 dinner @ 6._

Any last vestiges of the relaxing morning that followed a case well solved vanished and she could feel her nerves start to kick in.

Trying to distract herself, Barbara got up and wandered aimlessly about her flat, now tidy from the burst of cleaning she had done last night when she couldn't sleep.

At eleven, she gave up and grabbed her car keys and headed into the office. Lynley wasn't in so she tried to settle herself to the paperwork, directing her nervous energy into getting it finished or at least trying to.

She gave up after an hour, not nearly as much done as she should have got and stretched. Only when she pulled her top down from where it had risen did they horrifying thought occur to her.

What was she going to wear tonight?

She could feel the panic rising as it occurred to her that other than a black dress she really wasn't comfortable in, and a black suit she wore to court, she didn't have anything remotely suitable.

She looked at her watch. Just past twelve. She needed to go home.

~~

She stood in front of her mirror and despaired.

The relatively new black jeans she had on fitted and she felt comfortable in them, but the tops, all her tops were just too,

She shut her eyes and took a deep breath

There was only one thing for it.

~~

Thirty minutes later, she stood outside the main door to Marks & Spencer and took a deep breath and went in.

This time on a Saturday it was mobbed but she ignored it and stood like an idiot in amongst the racks of clothes. There was almost too much bloody choice and she was never going to find something in time. She was tempted towards her usual style of t-shirt just for the sake of ease but she managed to persuade herself not to.

She ended up gathering a handful of tops she thought she might fit and headed into the changing room, where who knows what the assistant thought of her but the woman helped anyway, possibly because of the panicked expression on her face.

Finally she found one that the assistant declared a perfect fit and she didn't feel too awkward in. She was already to breath a sigh of relief when she realised she couldn't remember if she had a decent black bra to go with the top. Then there was the matching underwear conundrum and fuck, she could feel the panic start to rise again and she refused to break down in the middle of Markses over dinner of all things and really why was she doing this again?

A couple of deep breaths later, repeating the mantra that she was getting ahead of herself, and well, the hardest part was over and really he would have said something. He knew what she was like and it hadn’t put him off so far so she settled for grabbing the black version of the bra she was currently wearing and headed off to the tills before she over-thought things.

~~

She managed to potter about the flat, tidying it even further beyond recognition until he arrived to pick her up. His eyes widened slightly when she opened the door and she took that as a good sign.

They ended up at the relatively new God-only-know-mixture restaurant near his flat. The music was playing in the background and the tables near them were creating a bubble of chatter around them but they were relatively quiet. Whether it was the strain of the case, or they were still tired or they were both as nervous as she felt, she didn't know.

They were sitting opposite each other, the chairs closer together than she was used to and she was hyper aware of where her feet were in case she accidently kicked him underneath the table. To be fair it had only happened twice and she wasn't quite used to the newish shoes but she was aware all the same.

The main course arrived and saved them from trying to be less awkward. It wasn't until they had automatically tried a forkful off the others plate that she realised perhaps the quietness was because they were already so comfortable with each other. The idea relaxed her and she managed to smile her way through the rest of dinner.

So comfortable in fact that she was more than willing to deliberately kick him in the shin when he tried to steal a bite of her sticky toffee pudding. The bastard was smiling so she assumed he had got over his nerves as well and was trying to provoke a reaction from her.

Coffee passed without much mishap and soon he was driving her home. She was somewhat surprised when he turned the ignition off as he stopped outside her flat but all he said at her enquiring look was, "I'm walking you home,"

She let out a burst of laughter that he looked amused by then he was out the car and opening her door for her.

Three steps later and she was on the top step, her key in the door and he was standing behind her on the next step down. She turned around and found herself almost eyelevel with him. She bit her lip, not entirely sure what to say.

He broke the silence. "I'm just curious, do you try and play footsie with all your first dates?"

She scowled slightly but bantered back anyway. "Nah, I usually save that for the second date."

"What about goodnight kisses?"

She pretended to think. "Well, sometimes, but you did try and steal my cake."

He was smiling at her and they moved closer together. "But I didn’t actually take any,"

She laughed. "I suppose," and he kissed her.

His hand moved around her waist, one of hers bracing her on his shoulder.

The kiss lingered, gentle and open-mouthed until they parted slightly, both their smiles having grown and suddenly everything was easy.

"D'you want to come in?"

If anything, his smile grew as he answered. "I would love to."

~~

 _Present day - Paris_

She was jarred out of her reminiscence by Tommy's arms coming around her waist. He placed a soft kiss on her bare shoulder. "Didn't mean to wake you." She leaned back against him, head touching his, hands coming to rest on his.

"You didn't." They stood in silence for a minute before he spoke again. "Not having second thoughts are you?" She could feel the grin on his face and she chuckled.

"Can't get rid of me that easily."

"I should hope not." He placed a kiss on the closest corner of her forehead he could reach. "Are you all right?" He was more serious this time and she squeezed his hand.

"Just thinking about the Reid case."

He sighed. "You think too much."

"Yeah, but you know how to stop that." That cleared the air and he pulled her around and kissed her deeply. When they parted, they were both smiling. "I do at that." His grin widened and he pulled her back towards the bed.

There was no more thinking after that.


End file.
